Asim Iftikhar to assume office of Pakistan's Permanent Representative at UN on 31st

ISLAMABAD: Finally, after over a decade there will be a change of guards at Pakistan’s Mission in New York when Ambassador Asim Iftikhar takes over as Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations on March 31.

Sources at the Foreign Office here and in New York confirm that the present Permanent Representative Ambassador Munir Akram finally retires on March 30 and has started paying his farewell calls at the United Nations.

Presently, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar is the Additional Permanent Representative at Pakistan’s Mission, a post created for the first time by the Foreign Office.

Before he took over his role at Pakistan’s Mission at the United Nation, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar was Pakistan’s Ambassador in France.

The post of additional permanent representative was announced by the Foreign Office in June, 2024 and this was the first time that there were two envoys at the UN simultaneously.

Ambassador Munir Akram, a political appointee, has served in the same post for twelve years -- over two different tenures. At nearly 80 years of age, he is one of the oldest ambassadors of Pakistan.

Even though his job title is additional permanent representative, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar has been entitled to all the privileges accorded to an ambassador.

One of the main reasons to elevate Ambassador Asim Iftikhar as permanent representative as soon as possible was because Pakistan took its place as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the term starting January 2025-2026, elected with overwhelming support in the UN General Assembly.

A Pakistani career diplomat, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has served as Additional Secretary for UN and Diplomatic Economy and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before this, he had served as Ambassador of Pakistan to France, Kingdom of Thailand and Permanent Representative to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). Having joined Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1993, he has held various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Pakistan Missions abroad.

On Friday, Ambassador Munir Akram paid a farewell call on Ms Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, where according to the Ambassador’s office, discussion focused on sustainable development, climate change, and the relevance of the UN system in accomplishing these goals. They also agreed that multilateral institutions should proactively respond to the development needs of Global South.

Meanwhile, the incoming permanent representative has been speaking at the UNSC on the situation in the Middle East including the question of Palestine and on the conflict in Ukraine.

On the Middle East, in his statement at the UNSC, the ambassador said, “Over 50,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, the largest mass expulsion since 1967. Military raids, settler violence, and illegal land annexations intensify daily. These are not isolated incidents but part of a deliberate strategy to erase Palestinian identity from their own land. It is ethnic cleansing in real time."

At the UNSC meeting on 3rd anniversary of the Ukraine conflict, the ambassador pointed out that Pakistan believes that all the people affected by this tragic conflict deserve a better future; a future free from fear, violence and destruction.

“International community must redouble its efforts to find a comprehensive and lasting solution to this conflict in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter to which we remain deeply committed and have always called for their universal and non-selective application”, he said.

Pakistan believes that the conflict in Ukraine could have been averted through dialogue and diplomacy.

“It must be brought to an end now through constructive and inclusive diplomacy. It is encouraging that the efforts to bring an end to this conflict have gathered wider momentum recently including the various high level contacts”, he added.