Asad Majeed set to be ECO secretary general

ISLAMABAD: Former foreign secretary Dr Asad Majeed Khan has been nominated secretary general of the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO). He is replacing Khusrav Noziri of Tajikistan who is completing his tenure next month.

Asad will be the third secretary general from Pakistan of the Tehran-based ECO since its inception more than 32 years ago. He would be the secretary general for three years.

Well-placed diplomatic sources told The News here Thursday that Asad would proceed to the ECO headquarters in July. Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, which have about 600 million population, are the members of the organistation.

Asad has served Pakistan as its ambassador in the United States, European Union/ Belgium and Japan. He was the foreign secretary till last year when Dr Syrus Sajad Qazi replaced him on his superannuation.

In another diplomatic development, Pakistan’s two career ambassadors, High Commissioner for Canada Zaheer Aslam Raja and Ambassador in Egypt Sajid Bilal, are retiring from the service next month.

Meanwhile, the senior-most contractual ambassadors of Pakistan Munir Akram and Sardar Masood Khan are enjoying third technical extensions respectively in New York as permanent representative for the United Nations and as ambassador for the United States in Washington.

They were deemed to have tendered their resignations on the change of the government but still they are continuing. The sources said the government is working to find suitable replacements for them.