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Inamul Haq, choice for High Commissioner?

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Jan. 3. The former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Inamul Haq, is believed to be the favourite of the Government to head the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi if relations between the two countries were to improve.

In a news report datelined New York, the Pakistan English daily, Dawn, said that the former Minister of State was the preferred choice of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf. But it was doubtful if the appointment would materialise in the near future as Pakistan and India continued to trade serious charges against each other.

The Indian mission in Islamabad and the Pakistani mission in New Delhi are functioning without High Commissioners following the tension between the countries triggered by the December 13, 2001 Indian Parliament attack.

Within a fortnight after the attack the Indian Government recalled the then High Commissioner in Islamabad, Vijay K. Nambiar, reduced the strength of the mission by 50 per cent and terminated the rail, road and air links.Pakistan did not retaliate and continued its High Commissioner, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, though it had no option on staff reduction and ending all communication links barring the sea route and the freight traffic through the rail link.

said that Gen. Musharraf favoured Mr. Haq — who has also served as Foreign Secretary and Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations and China — to head the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Gen. Musharraf had extended the tenure of Mr. Haq as Foreign Secretary and later inducted him as a Minister of State.

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