WASHINGTON: The Pakistan government awaits US government approval over appointment of new Ambassador to US Ali Jahangir Siddiqui.
US has not yet released the agrément for Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, a Karachi-based businessman who was designated the new Pakistani envoy to Washington in March.
An agrément is the approval of a diplomatic representative by the state to which he or she is to be accredited. Pakistan had sent relevant papers to the US State Department almost two months ago and is now waiting for the agrément, DAWN has reported.
Diplomatic norms do not allow a host government to tell another government who to send as ambassador, but they also place no obligation on the host government to approve the appointment.
In early March, the federal government announced in Islamabad that it planned to appoint Siddiqui as Ambassador to US.
Media reports claimed that the order for Mr Siddiqui’s appointment came directly from Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Mr Siddiqui was special assistant to PM on economic and business affairs before his new assignment was announced.
He is also chairman of JS Bank Ltd, which is owned by his father Jahangir Siddiqui.
Mr Ali Jahangir has previously been a director in Airblue, which is also connected to the prime minister’s family.
His new assignment has been challenged in various courts in Pakistan while opposition parliamentarians in both the National Assembly and the Senate have also rejected it.