New envoys named as FO seeks to fill vacant posts

ISLAMABAD: After a delay of several months, the government has finally nominated two new envoys: one for Belgium, Luxembourg, and the European Union, and another for The Hague, Netherlands.

The agrements for the envoys approved by the prime minister for Switzerland and Egypt in December are awaiting the concurrence of the host governments before an official announcement can be made by the Foreign Office.

Government sources tell The News that the Foreign Office has sent the summaries of the two new envoys to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. After his approval, the agrements for these two envoys will be sent to the host governments. The sources added that there are currently several vacancies in world capitals that the Foreign Office is addressing, and these summaries will also be sent to the prime minister, with Belgium and the Netherlands being two of the most significant ones.

Ambassador Rahim Hayat Qureshi, currently serving in Grade 21, has been nominated as the new envoy for Belgium, Luxembourg, and the European Union. He has been serving as the secretary of the Board of Investment (BOI) since May 2024, after being transferred from the Foreign Office. He has previously served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran and the Republic of Korea, as well as Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

Ambassador Qureshi’s name had been circulating ever since the position became vacant after his predecessor Ambassador Amna Baloch assumed charge as Pakistan’s 33rd foreign secretary in September 2024. With many contenders for this prestigious post, the general consensus among diplomats is that he is the ‘best choice’.

Initially, Ambassador Amna Baloch was to be replaced by senior diplomat Faisal Niaz Tirmazi, Pakistan’s ambassador in the UAE. Tirmazi was to be succeeded by Lt-Gen (r) Mohammad Aamer, but this did not proceed as planned, and Gen (r) Aamer was later re-designated as Pakistan’s ambassador to Qatar, with diplamtic sources also saying that he has been asked to remain in the UAE for another year.

Ambassador Qureshi has his work cut out for him as far as ties with the European Union go. First, a delegation from the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) monitoring mission is expected to visit Pakistan, likely in June this year, although no dates have been confirmed. This visit comes at a time when the European Union (EU) has emphasised Pakistan’s “continued implementation of the relevant international conventions” related to GSP+.

Second, as per a senior diplomat, “Pakistan’s new envoy will need to mount a strong defense, as the EU has strongly reacted to the recent convictions of civilians involved in the May 9 riots, who are being tried in military courts, linking it to Pakistan’s GSP+ status.”

The diplomat referred to the EU’s statement on the issue, which declared that any judgment rendered in a criminal case should be made public. The statement had added: “Under the EU’s GSP+, beneficiary countries, including Pakistan, have voluntarily agreed to effectively implement 27 international core conventions, including the ICCPR, to continue benefiting from GSP+ status.”

Meanwhile, Syed Haider Shah, additional foreign secretary (United Nations), has been nominated as Pakistan’s new envoy to the Netherlands. He served as ambassador to Nepal in 2020 and as acting high commissioner in 2019 at Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi. From 2008 to 2013, he was posted as a legal officer at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) in New York. He will replace Ambassador Seljuk Tarar, who was posted to The Hague in 2021.

For now, the agrements for Ambassador Marghoob Saleem Butt, currently the National Coordinator at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and nominated as Pakistan’s envoy to Switzerland, and Ambassador Amir Shaukat, currently Pakistan’s ambassador in Bern and nominated as the new envoy to Egypt, are still awaited from the host governments after having been sent in December.