By NNN-PTI,
United Nations : Pakistan government has decided to replace its Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, apparently over differences with him on some policy issues, including the PPP-led Cabinet’s decision to seek an inquiry by the world body into ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
Akram, a career diplomat who had been given extension by the previous PML-Q-led government until the end of the year, has been asked to hand over charge to Abdullah Hussain Harroon, a former speaker of the Sindh Assembly, by August 31, sources close to the Pakistani Mission to the UN here said on Saturday.
They said one of the major contentious issues was the government’s decision to ask the United Nations to hold inquiry into the assassination of Bhutto.
Akram along another senior officials of the Foreign Office had written a letter advising against the move, arguing that it would serve no purpose. The letter was leaked but it is not clear who did that, the sources said.
Akram, who has been Pakistan’s Ambassador at the United Nations for six years, has conveyed the government’s decision to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.