ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is likely to appoint senior bureaucrat Dr Cyrus Qazi as the new foreign secretary before completing its term in the second week of August, according to a media report on Wednesday.
Incumbent Foreign Secretary, Asad Majeed Khan, is set to retire on August 17, just days after the tenure of the current National Assembly ends on August 14.
Since the foreign secretary is a key position and cannot be left vacant, the government has decided to appoint a new foreign secretary before the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led government completes its term, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Qazi, special secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be appointed as the new foreign secretary, the report quoted sources as saying.
Once the current government completes its term in August, the Election Commission will announce the date for the general election.
He is the frontrunner and has been waiting for the top slot since Majeed was appointed as foreign secretary in December last year, the report said.
The government wanted to appoint Asad as foreign secretary in September 2022, when Sohail Mahmood relinquished the charge but instead, it had given the additional charge to Jauhar Saleem.
The reason the government did not appoint a full-time foreign secretary was that the then army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had reservations over Asad’s nomination, the report said.
However, Asad was finally appointed as the foreign secretary in December, days after General Bajwa retired.