Murad Ashraf Janjua appointed new chief of protocol

Islamabad : The Foreign Office has appointed Murad Ashraf Janjua as state of Pakistan’s new Chief of Protocol (CP). He is a senior diplomat and has vast experience of diplomatic assignments.

Murad Ashraf Janjua was Pakistan’s ambassador in Turkmenistan and has reached Islamabad on Thursday from Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat. Janjua is 50 and he has an MBA from United Business Institutes, Brussels, Belgium. Through a merit scholarship of the Government of Japan, he earned a post-graduation in International Development Studies from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo.

Prior to joining Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992, he served in Pakistan Army for eight years and as a Cavalry Captain he took early retirement. He belongs to a distinguished military family.

He has twenty five years of professional Diplomatic experience in both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Director he has performed duties ranging from organisational development to planning and overseeing training modules for Pakistan's diplomats both within Pakistan and abroad; HR management and Best Practices Initiative implementation; Head of Central Asia Section; Head of European Union Section; and Head of the Section of United Nations that was responsible for 3rd Committee, UNSC 1267 Committee and Peace Keeping Operations.

Later, he was privileged to be elevated to the coveted post of the deputy director to the Foreign Secretary's Office. He has also served as deputy chief of Protocol where he worked on the frontlines of diplomacy. His diplomatic assignments abroad include those in Pakistan Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva; Pakistan Embassy in Belgium and Mission to the European Commission in Brussels; in Consulate General of Pakistan, Istanbul and Consul General of Pakistan, Barcelona.

He is fluent in English and Turkish. In his early years of diplomatic career, he learnt Japanese language from Japan's Foundation's Japanese Language Institute in Tokyo. Murad Ashraf Janjua will take charge as Chief of Protocol next week.