LONDON, Sept 1: Abbas Nasir, a former head of the BBC’s Urdu Service, has been appointed executive editor of the Asia and the Pacific Region at BBC World Service.

Abbas Nasir, 43, started his career with Dawn in Pakistan in the early 1980s. He moved to the daily Muslim and later to the monthly Herald and was the chief political correspondent with the Karachi-based The News when he joined the BBC Urdu Service.