ISLAMABAD, May 5: Pakistan’s Additional Foreign Secretary Khurshid Anwar has been appointed the new secretary-general of the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organisation.

The decision was taken at the 16th meeting of the Council of Ministers (COM) held on Thursday in Baku, Azerbaijan, ahead of the ninth ECO Summit.

Mr Anwar is a career diplomat and currently heads the ECO Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will proceed to the ECO secretariat in Tehran in August to take over his new assignment.

He is the second Pakistani diplomat to get elected to this high profile position. The first was former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad, appointed 12 years ago.

In diplomatic circles, Mr Anwar is regarded as a competent and committed professional. He has served in Pakistan’s missions in important world capitals, including Amman, Cairo, Dhaka, London and Ottawa.

Mr Anwar joined the Foreign Service in 1978. He holds two masters degrees, one in International Relations from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston and the other in Political Science from the University of Peshawar.