Foreign ministry given ultimatum to respond in Ali Jahangir's appointment case

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) has given a last chance to the foreign ministry of Pakistan to submit its response on appointing Ali Jahangir Siddiqui as the Pakistani envoy to the United States. 

The LHC was hearing the case against the appointment of Ali Jahangir as the ambassador to the US and took the female protocol officer of foreign ministry to task for not complying with court’s order of submitting a rejoinder on Ali’s hiring from the ministry.

The high court warned if response is not submitted by the next hearing of the case then foreign secretary will be summoned to appear before the court.

The petition filed in the court argued that Ali Jahangir’s academic qualification is merely Bachelors and the fact that he does not have any prior experience in diplomacy, may turn out to be a disaster for the bilateral ties between the US and Pakistan.

On May 8, Siddiqui was appointed as the ambassador to the US after Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, his predecessor, retired from the post. The new envoy reached Washington, DC on May 29 and took charge of his new role of ambassadorship on May 30.

Siddiqui, who holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University, US, is the son of the famous banker and businessman Jahangir Siddiqui. He has served as director of Airblue airlines, Lucky Cement, Azgard Nine along with several other companies. In 2014, he was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Besides, he has also served as member of the Privatisation Commission, the Private Sector Advisory Board of the Planning Commission, the Sindh Board of Investment, and as member of the Community Development Board of the Government of Sindh.