: Pakistan’s Ambassador to Italy Jauhar Saleem has been appointed as the acting foreign secretary, on Saturday after the Foreign Office could not finalise and agree on a name for a permanent office holder.
Former foreign secretary Sohail Mehmood in his last official act while in office nominated Saleem — whose tenure as a diplomat ends in April next year — for the post.
The rules allow for an acting foreign secretary, and this helps avoid a vacuum on the administrative side and running the day-to-day of the ministry.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar confirmed to the publication that Saleem has moved to the office of acting foreign secretary.
Earlier, the highest authority had summoned Ambassador Dr Asad Majeed from Brussels and he reached Islamabad on Wednesday in anticipation of being nominated as the new foreign secretary.
This week, in an interview in Washington, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also praised Ambassador Majeed and said he should not suffer because of PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
Confusion and indecision at the Foreign Office over naming a new foreign secretary started when the latest audio leaks in which the former prime minister allegedly talked about a diplomatic cypher sent by Majeed when he was the ambassador to the United States.
“Yes, this was one reason. There were apprehensions at the Foreign Office that if the government orders an inquiry into the cypher incident, Ambassador Asad Majeed would not be able to give full attention to his duties but rather would spend time attending meetings of the inquiry,“.
The optics would also be not very helpful with a new foreign secretary attending these meetings.