ISLAMABAD: Former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani has been picked to be the foreign minister in the interim setup led by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, it was reliably learnt.

Sources said that a number of candidates were under consideration, besides Jilani, including former ambassador Naghmana Hashmi. However, the name of Jalil Abbas Jilani has been finalised to be the foreign minister in the interim cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister Kakar.

Jilani has 38 years of bilateral and multilateral experience as a career diplomat, having served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Belgium, Luxemburg and the European Union and Australia.

Ex-diplomat Jilani to be caretaker PM?

Ambassador Jilani served as the foreign secretary of Pakistan, the top civil service official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A specialist in South Asian affairs, Ambassador Jilani has worked as Director General for South Asia and SAARC, Deputy/ Acting High Commissioner to India and Director (India) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2018, the Government of Pakistan nominated Jilani as member of the Experts and Eminent Persons Group (EEP) of the ASEAN Regional Forum and later in 2019, as member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs.

Jilani has served as a Senior Fellow at both the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Meanwhile, there are a number of other unconfirmed names being circulated to be the members of the caretaker prime minister’s cabinet members, including Sayed Mohammad Ali as the information minister, Sarfaraz Bugti as interior minister, Shamshad Akhtar as finance minister, and Ahmad Irfan Aslam as minister of law and justice. However, there is no official confirmation for these nominations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023