ISLAMABAD, June 24: The federal government has appointed an officer of the district management group (DMG) Pakistan’s ambassador to France, creating unease among career foreign service diplomats.
Jahanzaib Khan is probably the first DMG officer to get an ambassadorial assignment and that too in one of the most important capitals in the world.
Earlier, Jalil Abbas Jilani, High Commissioner in Canberra and a relative of the prime minister, had been tipped as the next ambassador to France.
Some officials alleged that the appointment had been made under pressure from the presidency, but presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the prime minister’s office made all foreign appointments and Mr Khan had worked for the embassy in Paris as commercial counsellor.
Mr Khan’s deputy at the embassy, Rafiuz Zaman Siddiqui, a career diplomat, is senior to him.
Contrary to a tradition of posting Grade-22 diplomats to Paris, the government has made the new appointment of an officer who is in BPS 20.
According to sources, diplomats belonging to the 12th Common — a much senior batch of civil servants than Mr Khan’s — have only recently begun getting posted as ambassadors in lesser known capitals. They said Mr Khan’s appointment appeared to be a part of the policy to appease the district management group. Another DMG officer, Sohail Ahmed, was earlier appointed chairman of the Federal Bureau of Revenue.—Baqir Sajjad Syed