Controversy hits appointment of envoy to Sri Lanka – Newspaper

ISLAMABAD: The controversy over the appointment of a new envoy to Sri Lanka has not only caused diplomatic shame in the country, but has also exposed the defective procedure for the appointment of retired military officers in ambassadorial posts.

In a statement issued on September 30, the Foreign Ministry said Prime Minister Imran Khan had made a series of diplomatic appointments. Among those appointments was that of retired Major General Saad Khattak as High Commissioner for Sri Lanka. He had to replace retired Major General Shahid Hashmat in Colombo, who had completed his two-year contract.

However, according to reports, Defense Minister Pervez Khattak raised an objection about the appointment of Gen Khattak as high commissioner at the cabinet meeting held one day after his appointment was made public. The government decided to cancel the appointment.

A source from the Office of Foreign Affairs said that by the time the government changed its mind about its publication, the Sri Lankan government had already been asked to obtain its consent, which is called & # 39; agrément & # 39; in diplomatic jargon, to name Gen Khattak as the high commissioner. In diplomatic practice, the consent of the receiving state is mandatory for the appointments of ambassadors.

Faux pas also highlights defects in the process of appointing former military as ambassadors

Therefore, the request for agreement for General Khattak had to be withdrawn. Withdrawing nominations is not unusual. Countries occasionally return nominations. Similarly, sometimes recipient countries reject nominations. It is for this reason that appointments are not announced by the issuing state until the agreement is received from the receiving state. That practice was followed by Pakistan also in the past. However, it changed under the PTI government and nominations are now announced before receiving the agreement.

A FO official who commented on this practice said it is even an "insult to the receiving state." According to Article 4 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations: "The sending State must ensure that the agreement of the receiving State has been granted by the person proposing to accredit that State as head of the mission."

This diplomatic error aside, General Khattak's episode has also highlighted the procedure for the appointment of retired military officers against the 20 percent quota of non-professional ambassadors. Although not a hard and fast rule, military officers have traditionally held eight of the 16 positions for non-professional ambassadors. These include envoys in Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Brunei, Bosnia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Maldives and Jordan.

Theoretically, the nominations of retired military officers should be sent by the respective headquarters of the armed forces (GHQ in the case of General Khattak) through the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for appointment. The initiates, however, claim that the MoD channel was being ignored. Therefore, it is claimed, the defense minister had to raise his objections at the cabinet meeting instead of before during the process. The appointments of ambassadors per se are the prerogative of the prime minister and do not require the assent of the cabinet.

It is argued that if the defense ministry channel had been effective, the government could have been saved from shame.

Defense Minister Pervez Khattak was contacted by his comments, but received no response to his inquiry.

It is alleged that the rivalry between the minister and General Khattak was political in nature, since both come from Nowshera. Defense Minister Khattak had previously blocked his appointment as chairman of the Evacuate Trust Property Board.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Faisal, in response to a question, said: "I cannot comment on what was discussed during the cabinet meeting, but as far as the ambassador's publications are concerned, it can be observed that were done after a well-established set of procedures and practices. "

Posted on Dawn, October 10, 2019