LAHORE: Should Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in a day or so, as Imran Khan had announced last night during his fiery address at the Karachi rally, he would be the third foreign minister after Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri to do so.
It is imperative to note that all the three former foreign ministers have formally reposed confidence in Imran Khan’s leadership within the last 28 days only.
Interestingly, while all the three above-named foreign ministers were once the trusted lieutenants of the two-time former Nawaz Sharif, two of them (Sardar Assef and Shah Mahmood) have also been holding vital positions in the Pakistan People’s Party hierarchy.
Of these three former foreign ministers, the always immaculately dressed-up Sardar Assef Ali and Khurshid Kasuri hail from District Kasur near Lahore and have been arch rivals in politics since long.
Another characteristic common between Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali and Khurshid Kasuri is that both were not only appointed as foreign ministers in November, but had also relinquished charge during this particular month.
During the 2008 polls, the 71-year old Assef Amed Ali was elected to the National Assembly for the fifth time after defeating Khurshid Kasuri.
Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali had served as the foreign minister of Pakistan in the National government led by the late Premier Benazir Bhutto from November 16, 1993 to November 4, 1996.
The 55-year old Shah Mahmood Qureshi had served as foreign minister between March 31, 2008 and February 9, 2011.
Qureshi, the custodian of the Mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam and of the Shrine of Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan, had joined Imran Khan’s PTI as Vice Chairman on November 27, 2011 at a rally in Ghotki, Sindh.
The 70-year old Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, we all know, had served as country’s foreign minister between November 23, 2002 and November 15, 2007.
