Pakistan has named Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, its current Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as the country’s next foreign secretary. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced the decision on September 9, with the appointment approved by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Iftikhar will take charge on September 17, when outgoing foreign secretary Ambassador Amna Baloch retires after more than three decades in the foreign service. Baloch, who took over the post on September 11, 2024, is set to move on to a new posting as Pakistan’s ambassador to Turkey on contract.
Who is Asim Iftikhar Ahmad
Iftikhar joined Pakistan’s Foreign Service in 1993 after earning an electrical engineering degree from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, where he won a gold medal, along with a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Punjab.
His postings since have taken him across three continents. He served in Niger in the late 1990s, then spent several stretches in New York at Pakistan’s Mission to the United Nations, including as political coordinator on Security Council affairs and as deputy chef de cabinet to a UN General Assembly president.
He later served as ambassador to Thailand and Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, then returned to Islamabad as the Foreign Office spokesperson from 2021 to 2022. From 2022 to 2024 he was ambassador to France, with concurrent accreditation to Monaco and as permanent delegate to UNESCO.
He has held his current post at the UN since 2025 and served as president of the UN Security Council in July of that year, according to Wikipedia and Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
Why the appointment matters
The foreign secretary is Pakistan’s top career diplomat, running the day-to-day operations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and advising the political leadership on foreign policy. The handover comes at a delicate moment for Pakistani diplomacy, with the region watching an escalating war between the United States, Israel and Iran in the Gulf.
Wire Examiner has previously reported that Islamabad has been pressing ahead with mediation efforts between Iran and the United States even as the conflict has intensified, a role that will now fall partly to the incoming foreign secretary’s office to sustain.
In a statement announcing the move, Dar said he was confident that “under Asim Iftikhar’s leadership, the Foreign Office will continue to advance Pakistan’s interests with clarity, professionalism and purpose.” He added that Iftikhar would “lead the ministry effectively and further Pakistan’s diplomatic objectives with professionalism, clarity and a focused approach.”
Dar also thanked Baloch for her “dedicated service and leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a consequential period in Pakistan’s diplomatic history,” according to Radio Pakistan.
Other candidates considered
According to The Nation, two other senior diplomats were in contention for the post: Ambassador Shafaqat Ali Khan, currently Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and Rahim Hayat Qureshi, Pakistan’s ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The selection of Iftikhar, who has spent much of the past three years directly engaged with the UN Security Council and multilateral diplomacy, suggests Islamabad wants continuity in its approach to international bodies at a time when Pakistan has repeatedly sought a mediating role in regional crises, from Afghanistan to the current Gulf conflict.
Baloch’s move to Ankara continues a pattern of senior Pakistani diplomats taking up ambassadorial postings after leading the foreign ministry, keeping their expertise within the diplomatic corps rather than retiring from public service altogether.
The formal transition will take place later this month, with Iftikhar expected to be sworn in shortly after Baloch’s retirement takes effect.
