Sohail Mahmood front runner to be Pakistan Foreign Secretary

Islamabad: Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood is the “clear front runner” to become the country’s top diplomat when Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua retires in April.
According to Dawn, Janjua, who was the first woman to become Foreign Secretary, will retire on April 17 after serving for two years.
Mahmood has diverse experience of bilateral as well as multilateral diplomacy under his belt, having represented the country in Turkey, the US, the UN in New York, Thailand and India. He has also headed the Afghanistan and West Asia Division as additional secretary and was director general in the foreign secretary’s office.
Mahmood’s colleagues describe him as affable and a workaholic. He is said to be very strong in drafting. He has a ‘high blood count’ on the official performance grading, the daily said quoting colleagues.
However, his detractors say he is a very soft voice and lacks dominating physical presence in meetings. But one of them told Dawn “as a matter of fact foreign ministers do not really want a domineering, combative figure as the head of Foreign Office bureaucracy. They are rather interested in someone who would not rock the boat”.
Another source said Mahmood had a lucky career in Foreign Service and “has been at the right place at the right time”.