Masood Khan named ambassador to US

ISLAMABAD: Former president of the AJK, Masood Khan, has been named as Ambassador to the US. He would replace Dr Asad Majeed Khan, who currently heads the country’s mission to Washington since 2019, the Geo News reported.

A formal summary to the effect has been moved, sources told the Geo News. Masood Khan was appointed as the 27th President of Azad Kashmir by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2016. He was replaced by PTI’s Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary following the AJK elections in August 2021. Khan is a career diplomat who served the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in different capacities since 1980, before elevation as the President of AJK.

According to sources at ambassador to the US has been moved, but a notification to the effect is awaited.A vocal and strong advocate of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, Masood Khan effectively highlighted sufferings of the oppressed Kashmiris that warrant an effective strategy to end the never-ending holocaust.

Khan joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1980 and went on to serve in various diplomatic positions till 2015. The former AJK president also served as the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from August 2003 to March 2005, before becoming Pakistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2005 to 2008. He was also Pakistan’s Ambassador to China between September 2008 and September 2012 and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York, between October 11, 2012 and February 7, 2015.