Skip to main content

Sohail Mahmood named new foreign secretary

Shah Mahmood Qureshi

MULTAN: Pakistan’s High Commissioner in New Delhi Sohail Mahmood will become new Foreign Secretary of the country upon superannuation of incumbent Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua who is retiring next month.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made this announcement while speaking to the media in Multan.

“We’ve decided to appoint Sohail Mahmood as Foreign Secretary,” he said and added the decision has been taken in consultation with Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The foreign minister said Sohail Mahmood will assume office upon superannuation of Tehmina Janjua on April 16.

“I want to pay tribute to Tehmina Janjua with whom I have been working for the last seven months,” he said, adding that he has learnt a lot from her. He said Sohail Mahmood had served in crucial positions, including as Pakistan’s envoy in Thailand and Turkey.

In a reference to the opposition’s criticism of the government over National Accountability Bureau (NAB) actions, Qureshi said NAB is not subservient to the government, therefore, they couldn’t interfere its affairs. The NAB enjoyed the right to conduct accountability of all, he added.

Speaking about the reported government decision to rename the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), he said he was not in favour of the decision.

Defending the proposed increase in fuel prices for the month of April, he said prices of petroleum products were being increased to keep up their prices in the international market.

The post Sohail Mahmood named new foreign secretary appeared first on ARYNEWS.



from ARYNEWS https://ift.tt/2I3DFPY

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trump says he urged team to ‘slow’ COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered. The president has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of diagnostic tests. At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.” The United States — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, placing it outside the top 20 countries in the world, per capita. “Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.” It was not clear from Trump’s tone if he was playing to the crowd, who ...

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma...

IS confirms Baghdadi’s death, vows revenge

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.—AP BEIRUT: The Islamic State militant group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement on Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. “We mourn you ... commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi — presented as the group’s new spokesman — in an audio statement. Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s province of Idlib on Sunday. The group also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. The statement said the group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death. “The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed” on a replacement, said the seven-minute message. Little is known abou...