ISLAMABAD: Dr Asad Majeed Khan, presently posted as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Belgium, the European Union and Luxembourg, has been appointed as the new Foreign Secretary.
A notification in this regard was issued on Friday by the Establishment Division. Dr Asad Majeed Khan- a seasoned diplomat- was at the centre of the cipher controversy that PTI Chief Imran Khan has for long presented as evidence of ‘a foreign conspiracy’ to oust him.
Dr Asad Majeed Khan had taken charge as ambassador to Belgium in April this year. He completed his three-year term as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US on Jan 11, 2022, but stayed in Washington till March 24 on the arrival of ambassador-designate Sardar Masood Khan.
He had also served in Washington as the deputy chief of mission for four years and spent six years in New York, including as a diplomat at Pakistan’s UN Mission. He has been in the limelight for the cipher, based on his meeting with US State Department official Donald Lu- that the PTI claimed was the central character in the fall of its government.
In the cable, Asad Majeed Khan had reportedly said that Donald Lu warned that Imran Khan’s continuation as the prime minister would have repercussions for Pakistan- US bilateral relations. The Pentagon and the State Department had rejected the PTI accusations, saying that no such thing happened.
