Farhatullah stresses need for career diplomat as Pak envoy to US

ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Farhatullah Babar said the appointment of a non-career diplomat as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States at this critical time for the Pak-US relations was a thoughtless and imprudent decision that needed to be reviewed.

In a statement PPPP former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that Ali Jehangir Siddiqui might be an exceptionally brilliant banker and businessman but it would be fatal to assume that a successful businessman was also a successful diplomat.

"Ambassadorial appointments of this nature must be made only after due deliberations, bearing in mind also the impact on the morale of career diplomats denied legitimate expectations," he said.

He said the appointment would only further demoralise career diplomats, undermine foreign policy structures and was unwise. He said there might be no official confirmation of his appointment nor it was clear that Ali's name had been sent to Washington for formal approval.

However, he said the decision not to give extension to the incumbent ambassador and the silence indicated that there was truth in the reports.

"Our ambassador in Washington must be a nimble footed career diplomat possessing skills to perform difficult balancing acts in a carefully nuanced manner in a complex relationship beset with absence of trust. It is wrong to dismiss it as an 'administrative matter' as an official spokesperson has tried to do," he said.

Farhatullah Babar said that the manner of appointment was whimsical, non-transparent, thoughtless and typical of the PML-N's style; 'medieval governance driven by sublime nonsense at public expense'. He demanded of the government to come out clean and revisit the appointment after holding inter and intra institutional dialogue which should also be duly minuted and recorded.