News
Masood to replace Haroon as envoy to UN
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
BEIJING: Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan will be the country’s permanent representative (PR) in the United Nations (UN) in place of Hussain Abdullah Haroon, who has completed his tenure at the United Nations headquarters.
It is likely that Masood Khan will move to the new assignment next month before the end of the UN General Assembly’s annual session commencing in the last week of this month.Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq Khan may replace Masood Khan as new envoy to China but his shifting hasn’t been approved yet.
Hussain Haroon has reportedly informed the authorities concerned that he would not be interested to serve in the slot any further. Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News here Tuesday that Masood Khan, who is on his second extension in service and viewed among the top diplomats Pakistan has produced, will be getting yet another extension expiring in February next.
Masood Khan and Muhammad Sadiq Khan have both served as spokesman of the Foreign Office at different times. Masood Khan has experience of serving in the UN headquarters in Geneva for one full term while Sadiq Khan lacks such experience. He served in the United States as deputy ambassador during General (R) Pervez Musharraf’s government. He has been doing a good job in Afghanistan and it will be a difficult proposition for the Foreign Office to change him at this point, given the precarious situation in Afghanistan.
However, Sadiq Khan is keen to take up the ambassadorial assignment in Beijing, the sources pointed out. Masood Khan had also earlier served at the UN headquarters in the nineties and did a good job in that capacity with the country’s then PR in the UN, Akram Zaki, sources said. With the major reshuffle of ambassadors in China and Afghanistan, the possibility of extensive changes in the Foreign Office cannot be ruled out, sources opined.
AFP
Courtesy www.geo.tv