ISLAMABAD, June 22: Former foreign secretary Inamul Haque was sworn in as minister of state for foreign affairs here on Saturday to fill the post vacated by Abdul Sattar who resigned earlier this month on health grounds.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf administered the oath to the new minister at Awan-i-Sadr. The swearing-in ceremony was attended among others by cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats.

Inamul Haque, 61, becomes the country’s third minister of state for foreign affairs in recent years, the other two being Zain Noorani and late Siddique Khan Kanju.

Inamul Haque, who joined the foreign service in 1965, has had a distinguished career as a diplomat. He served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Turkey from 1992 to 1996, and to China from 1997 to 1999. He also held important positions at foreign missions in the United States, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

His last assignment abroad was in August 1999 as Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations headquarters in New York. However, his term was cut short in February 2000 so that he could be appointed country’s foreign secretary.