Pakistan appoints envoy to UAE after 3 months

ISLAMABAD: Afzal Mahmood will be appointed as the country’s new Ambassador for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the post turned vacant three months ago when Ambassador Ghulam Dastgir attained superannuation and returned home from the Gulf country.

According to a news report published in The News, Afzal Mahmood will be assuming the assignment in Abu Dhabi upon receipt of his agreement (consent of appointment from the host country). Islamabad has sought the same from the UAE capital.

Ambassador-designate for the UAE Afzal Mahmood is currently the country’s Ambassador in Bahrain where he was appointed envoy in August 2018.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Ayub has been designated Ambassador for Bahrain, the post that will be vacant after Afzal Mehmood's transfer.

Ayub is currently posted in Pakistan’s High Commission in London. He has been elevated to the slot of ambassador.

Afzal Mahmood is an astute diplomat who severed at important slots in his career with the Foreign Service, the report said.

With work experience as Director-General for Americas and Europe after returning from a three-year assignment in Houston, USA in September 2016, he also served in the United States as Consul General for 10 Southern States.

Mahmood represented Pakistan at the United Nations Environment Programme and United Nations Human Settlements Programme in Nairobi as Deputy Permanent Representative during 2004-2007.

Read more: Pakistan receives $1billion from UAE

His other multilateral assignments included occasional representation at Asean, Saarc, and Climate Change meetings in Indonesia, East Africa, Bangladesh, and Germany. He also worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Assistant Director, Deputy Director and Director, responsible for Iran-Turkey, Europe, and South Asia.

Foreign Office aims to fill up vacant posts without delay

The sources also revealed to The News that several senior slots in the country’s missions abroad are vacant and the Foreign Office aims to fill all such necessary posts without further delays.

Pakistan’s Acting High Commissioner for India Syed Haider Shah has been posted as Ambassador for Nepal.

Aftab Hasan Khan will be Pakistan’s Acting High Commissioner for India from later this month after Syed Haider Shah’s transfer to Kathmandu.

Pakistan and India don’t have a high commissioner in their respective capitals since early last year when they recalled them after aggravation of bilateral ties due to India’s indescribable brutalities on the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK).

Meanwhile, Dr Mazhar Javed has taken over as High Commissioner in Pretoria (South Africa) following the retirement of Dr Muhammad Sohail, who has attained superannuation.