UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s newly appointed Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Syed Haider Shah, presented his credentials to UN Secretary General António Guterres at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Ambassador Shah reaffirmed Islamabad’s commitment to multilateralism, the UN Charter and the organisation’s work in promoting international peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.

He also conveyed the greetings of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy PM Ishaq Dar. Guterres reciprocated the greetings and appreciated Pakistan’s positive and constructive contributions to the UN.

A senior career diplomat, Ambassador Shah had served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the Netherlands since March 2025, and was posted in Nepal from 2020 to 2022. He also served as the deputy head of Mission at Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi from 2016 to 2020, including as acting high commissioner.

Shah has considerable experience in multilateral diplomacy and international law.

From 2008 to 2013, he served as a legal officer at the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate in New York. Prior to that, from 2002 to 2006, he was posted at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, where he covered the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee and participated in negotiations on UN Security Council (UNSC) and General Assembly resolutions.

He also served as an additional secretary for UN and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation affairs at Pakistan’s foreign ministry from November 2022 to February 2025.

Shah holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. from the University of Peshawar’s Khyber Law College. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in international law from the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Hague.

He co-authored a research paper on the legislative powers of the UNSC, published in 2005.

The former UN envoy, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, left New York last month to take up his new responsibilities as Pakistan’s foreign secretary, ending his two-year assignment as the country’s permanent representative to the UN. He paid his farewell call on Guterres on Sept 30.