December 19, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 8, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: United Nations Resident Coordinator Jan Vandemoortele is leaving Pakistan prematurely on Wednesday to return to United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) after finding the job too stressful and taxing for his health.

A relatively inexperienced Turk is being tipped to succeed him in what is described as one of the more challenging assignments in the United Nations.

In the intervening period, WHO representative Dr Khalif Bile would be looking after the UN affairs here. Mr Vandemoortele, who took over the Pakistan assignment in September 2005, had the most of the eventful stay as compared to his 14 predecessors.

Days after landing in Pakistan, he had to coordinate the international response to the 7.6 magnitude October 8 earthquake that left more than 75,000 people dead.

Hardly had the UN’s early recovery plan ended, Mr Vandemoortele saw himself dealing with the UN response to 2007 floods in Sindh and Balochistan.

The outgoing UN representative, while talking to Dawn, described his stay as “best of the times and worst of the times.” He said had he known what awaited him in Pakistan, he would have certainly thought about it several times before accepting it.

But, Mr Vandemoortele was not always confronted with emergencies like the earthquake and floods, he even got a chance to start the implementation of One UN Project for reforming how the world body delivered at country level, after Pakistan was chosen as a pilot to test the initiative.

Pakistan assignment was Jan’s seventh posting, but it is the first time that he had decided to seek a transfer before four years. He remained here a little over two years. He said by staying in Pakistan he came to understand the country in a much different way from how it is depicted by the media in the West.

“This country’s perception overseas is incorrect, incomplete and wrongly rate.” He desired to work for improving Pakistan’s image abroad.

Asked to comment on the tittle-tattle that he was being made to quit because of differences with the government, Mr Vandemoortele said, they were baseless and he was leaving purely because of health reason.