ISLAMABAD: The government has started looking for a suitable person who could be appointed as ambassador and permanent representative to the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Sources told Dawn that several senior officials were seeking contacts with the bigwigs in PPP for appointment to the prestigious position.
The tenure of the incumbent ambassador to the WTO, Shahid Bashir, ended on Jan 5 but he is still in Geneva, hoping and waiting for an extension in his service there.
A senior officer in the commerce ministry confirmed to Dawn that no formal extension has been granted to Mr Bashir.
However, he said the case for extension has been forwarded to Commerce Minister Amin Fahim.
The post was created in 2002. Earlier, the Foreign Office ambassadors used to represent Pakistan at the WTO.
The sources said that two senior government officers in particular were vying for the prestigious position. They are: Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, and Qasim Niaz, Minister (economic) at Brussels.
The government had created the post to appoint a competent person to secure Pakistan’s interests in the Doha round negotiations. But there are bleak chances for the revival of talks on Doha Development agenda launched in 2001.
The existing mission staff in Geneva has apparently failed to lobby effectively with opposing countries to persuade them to support a European Union waiver from the WTO for duty-free import of 75 textile items from Pakistan.
Not deterred by the failures, the officers posted in the Geneva trade mission have already started approaching the government for seeking extension in their stay in Switzerland despite the fact that all talks on multilateral trade liberalisation have been put on hold for the past few years.
Contrary to Pakistan, many developing countries have reduced their staff in the costly city of Geneva. Pakistan has a bigger staff at the Geneva mission.
According to experts, since Doha Development agenda of the WTO has been stalled with no prospects of moving forward, there is no need for Pakistan to have a big trade mission in Geneva.
On the contrary, other member countries, including India, have strengthened their domestic offices for doing research on trade issues and give feedback to their missions in Geneva.
There was no formal ministerial declaration at the end of the eighth WTO ministerial conference on Dec 17 which suggests failures that member countries could not able to strike a deal on some broader outlines.
Members made their individual statements during the sessions and the chairman of the conference presented his own statement at the end of the session.
At the same time formal and informal meetings during the conference were also a disappointment making no chance for revival of talks to conclude the Doha Development Agenda launched in 2001.