ISLAMABAD: The government appointed on Monday Dr Maleeha Lodhi as the new amb­assador to the United Nations.

“It has been decided to appoint Dr Maleeha Lodhi as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations based in New York,” a Foreign Office statement said.

Dr Lodhi, who will take charge of her new assignment in February, succeeds Ambassador Masood Khan.

She has earlier served twice as ambassador to the United States (1993-1996 and 1999-2002) and as high commissioner to the United Kingdom (2003-08). She had also been a member of the UN Secretary Gen­eral’s Advisory Board on Dis­armament Affairs (2001-05).

Dr Lodhi, who previously had the distinction of being the first woman in South Asia to become the editor of a national daily, would now be the first woman to represent Pakistan at the United Nations.

She has taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, been a Fellow at the Institute of Politics, Harvard University, and an international scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington, DC.

Moreover, Dr Lodhi is a member of the National Defence University’s Senate and a member of the Advisory Council of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Affairs.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2014*