WASHINGTON: According to Geo News, the United States government has approved the appointment of Sardar Masood Khan as Pakistan’s envoy in Washington.
Masood will now be able to replace incumbent Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan, thanks to the State Department’s agrément. In diplomacy, an agrément is an agreement to receive and assist members of a country’s diplomatic mission.
Masood’s agrément was issued by the Foreign Office in November, following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nomination of him as ambassador to the United States.
While the US State Department normally takes a few weeks to process an agrément, eyebrows were raised after the delay in issuance of the paperwork dragged on and there was no sign from the State Department.
Simultaneously, on January 27, US Congressman Scot Perry penned a letter to President Joe Biden, which was later leaked to selected Indian media members. It was a scathing letter directed at Masood, and it was picked up by the Indian media, which reported that Washington had blocked the appointment.
However, according to a report published in The News, Islamabad was satisfied with the normal bureaucratic process. According to a Foreign Office spokesperson, Indian media reports that the process has been stymied by Washington are false.
“Ambassador Masood Khan is a highly accomplished diplomat with more than 40 years of experience in multilateral and bilateral diplomacy.” “His agreement is being processed in the US system,” said the spokesperson.
Masood Khan’s professional profile
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed Masood Khan as the 27th President of Azad Kashmir in 2016. Following the AJK elections in August 2021, he was replaced by PTI’s Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary.
He is a career diplomat who worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various capacities before being appointed president of the AJK.
Masood Khan of the PML-N has been elected president of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Masood, a vocal and strong supporter of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, effectively highlighted the oppressed Kashmiris’ sufferings, which call for an effective strategy to end the never-ending holocaust.
From August 2003 to March 2005, he was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson, before becoming Pakistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2005 to 2008.
Between September 2008 and September 2012, he served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, and between October 11, 2012 and February 7, 2015, he served as Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
