Former diplomat Mahdi Masud passes away

KARACHI: Former senior diplomat Mahdi Masud passed away on Tuesday at the age 91 at a local hospital, after brief illness.

Masud had topped the 1952 CSS exams and went on to join the foreign services. He served as Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN and the Deputy High Commissioner in Delhi, and Calcutta. He also served at the country’s missions in Washington, Tehran and Colombo.

During the 1971 East Pakistan crisis, he was assigned to Calcutta to resolve the situation at the Pakistan’s Deputy High Commission, which was taken over by the Indian-backed defectors. The situation in Calcutta was volatile with assassinations and terrorist bombings taking place almost everywhere in the city and the presence of a Pakistani diplomat, with Islamabad’s mandate to rescue the diplomatic hostages, in the midst of it was extremely risky.

Masud was severely harassed and his residence was attacked several times to prevent him from meeting with the Pakistani diplomats under siege at the Deputy High Commission. Masud was subsequently detained for several months.

Mahdi Masud widely traveled and wrote regularly in newspapers and magazines, as well as lectured on international relations and current affairs at universities and defence institutions. For his scholarly contributions, Masud also received the Twenty-First Century Award for outstanding achievement from the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge.

Mahdi Masud has left behind a son Syed Abbas Masud and daughter Zainab Masud Agha and four grandchildren to mourn. His funeral prayers would be held today (Wednesday) after Zuhr prayers at the Masjid-e-Yasrab, Defence Imambargah, Phase IV.