NEW DELHI – A new Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, has assumed charge after his predecessor Abdul Basit took premature retirement from his post.
The job will be a challenge for Mahmood, who joined Pakistan’s Foreign Service in 1985, owing to prevailing tense relations between two countries.
Earlier, he had discharged his responsibilities in Islamabad’s diplomatic mission in Washington, New York, Ankara and Bangkok.
Former High Commissioner Abdul Basit was at the post in 2014 and supposed to retire in April 2018 originally.
But, he sent his premature retirement request to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who accepted it.
According to local media reports, Basit took retirement as he was apparently not ready to work under his junior – Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua – who had been promoted to the top bureaucratic position in March 2017.
