ISLAMABAD, May 12: The foreign office on Friday announced the appointment of Maj-Gen (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani as Pakistan’s new ambassador to the United States.

Gen Durrani, who served as defence and military attaché in Washington from 1977 to 1982, will proceed to Washington next month to replace the incumbent Gen (retd) Jehangir Karamat.

A confidant of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Gen Durrani has been involved in Track-II diplomacy between Pakistan and US, and Islamabad and New Delhi. Specifically, he is known to have engaged with Thomas Pickering, the then US under-secretary of state for political affairs, on the Kashmir issue.

Since his retirement in 1998, Gen Durrani has been involved in efforts aimed at promoting peace with India. —Q.A.