ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministry’s pointman for India, Jalil Abbas Jilani, passed on the baton of the South Asia division to Ibne Abbas last week. Jilani, who headed the division for almost two-and-a-half year, was much in the news after his appointment as FO spokesman in February, when he proved to be a level-headed diplomat.

At his last briefing, he was all smiles and seemed like an enormously relieved man. Many present on the occasion noticed that Mr Jilani never looked as cheerful as he did that day. His only regret as director-general of the South Asia division was that movement on the Indo-Pakistan front had not been as fast as he had expected. However, that is not to say that he had nothing to cheer about. He left with the satisfaction of having spearheaded the successful 12th Saarc summit in Islamabad that paved the way for resumption of the composite dialogue and normalization process with India. Also, he led Pakistan at the talks on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service that finally set the wheels rolling, resulting in the historic visit of the Hurriyat leadership to AJK and Pakistan. Since the resumption of the composite dialogue with India in January 2004, Mr Jilani participated in every round of talks on various bilateral issues within and outside the composite dialogue framework. Hence, he remained closely involved with the formulation of India policy. It is believed that he was the man who in the end most strongly advocated that Pakistan move the World Bank on the Baglihar Dam dispute with India.

Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was obviously caught unaware of Mr Jilani’s transfer from the key political division when he dispatched a gift of his latest book to the latter. A few weeks ago, Mr Jilani got a signed copy of the Indian minister’s book, ‘Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist’, with a note: “To my friend in whose hands lies the future of Indo-Pak relations.”

It is ironical that Mr Jilani, who was declared persona non grata by India in February 2003 when tensions peaked between the two countries, was a Pakistani diplomat most closely engaged with India in the period that followed.

Although Mr Jilani has proceeded to the National Defence College here for a 10-month course, it appears he will not be able to disengage himself completely from the Indo-Pakistan scene. The interior and commerce ministries have already requested him to attend meetings to finalize strategies for talks with India later this month. Other ministries involved in the dialogue process also have similar requests on the cards.

It has been over a month since live telecast of the weekly FO briefings went off the air. But surprisingly foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan expressed his ignorance about it when his attention was drawn to it at a reception he hosted to bid farewell to Mr Jilani and to introduce his successor two weeks back.

Although some say the decision to stop the briefing telecasts was cleared by the FO, Mr Khan said he personally favoured showing them.

It seems the Mr Naeem Khan’s stint as spokesman is likely to be even shorter than his predecessor’s who did the job for less than six months. Mr Khan has been nominated as ambassador to Philippines, a country he is well acquainted with as director-general of the East Asia Pacific region. He will probably be heading for Manila within two months, if not less. Mr Khan had joined the Pakistan Foreign Service in 1982. He has served in the country’s diplomatic missions in China, the US, Spain and Yemen.

It appears that after his departure, the foreign office may have one of its women officers as spokesperson. Such a move would fit in with the present government’s passion for promoting ‘soft image’ of the country. No woman has ever occupied such a high profile slot before.

The recent reshuffling at the FO has brought some women career officers to key political divisions. Ms Naila Chohan has been promoted as director-general of Europe desk, Ms Humaira Hasan as DG, Middle East, Ms Tasnim Aslam as DG UN, and Ms Riffat Masood as director, Saarc division. Currently, Ms Aslam holds dual charge as director of the foreign secretary’s office as well as DG UN. She is known to have given a tough time to US embassy officials in Islamabad as director, Americas.

OIC’S OVERSIGHT: The 16-member ‘Commission of Eminent Persons’ (CEP) set up by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the 57-member pan Islamic body, has not one woman expert.

The CEP was proposed by President Pervez Musharraf at the October 2003 OIC summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia, where he advocated the path of ‘enlightened moderation’. Subsequently, the conference adopted a resolution by virtue of which a Commission of Eminent Persons was constituted, drawn from African, Arab and Asian member states. It is headed by Malaysia, the current chairman of the OIC.

Among the specific tasks outlined for the commission are preparing a strategy and a plan of action for enabling the Ummah to meet the challenges of the 21st century and evolving clear recommendations for the reform and restructuring of the OIC system.

At a recent function, the non-inclusion of a woman in the commission was brought to the notice of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Pakistan’s representative to the Commission, by a group of women professionals. Saudi ambassador Ali Awadh Asseri was also present on the occasion when the protest was lodged and he agreed that women should also have been on the commission. Reportedly, the Senator, making light of the oversight, said the omission was in deference to “our Arab friends”.

Increasing visibility of women in the Islamic body is necessary for effective articulation of issues concerning them and the setting of new gender-sensitive policy directions. This should serve the overriding objective of the CEP to promote the image of Islam as a religion of moderation and tolerance.

One hears that as an after-thought the CEP is now considering bringing into its fold a woman scholar. However, it may be a case of ‘too little too late’ given that the second and final meeting of the CEP held in Islamabad in May had already prepared its recommendations. The recommendations will be presented at the extraordinary OIC summit in Mekkah this December.