Pakistan Envoys Role
By the Editor

SPEAKING in a realistic way, President Pervez Musharraf has asked Pakistani envoys to proactively pursue economic diplomacy, highlight Pakistan’s geo-political location in the region and project positive developments of the country.

Addressing envoys conference, he stressed the importance of deepening relations with major powers, continuing the peace process with India and resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

The President spent almost seven hours with the envoys with a view to making the annual get-together and interaction effective and meaningful.

He dilated upon different aspects of the country’s foreign policy and gave clear-cut goals to Pakistani missions and representatives abroad to achieve.

His foreign policy vision has the potential to respond to the challenges of the changing times and make Pakistan a focal point both in terms of international politics and economic activities.

The advice by the President to the Ambassadors to pursue economic diplomacy can unleash enormous opportunities for trade and investment.

The President has time-and-again been emphasizing this for the last several years and in fact he had once told our Ambassadors and High Commissioners that their performance would be measured against achievements to this effect.

However, with a few exceptions the advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Not only that some of the Ambassadors have miserably failed to get any market access for Pakistani products but in the case of some others our products lost the access they already enjoyed.

All this is because of the lethargic attitude of the Foreign Office. The progress on this account is possible only if country-specific targets are set for each year and proper monitoring is done to ensure their realisation.

Ambassadors who fail to achieve them should be called back immediately and debarred from future postings abroad for a significant period.

Similarly, our missions abroad are in deep slumber as far as projecting Pakistan in a positive manner and countering anti-Pakistan propaganda is concerned. India is back-tracking on its commitments to engage into meaningful negotiations to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir and there is a dire need to expose New Delhi and take the world community into confidence.

There are persistent and genuine complaints by overseas Pakistanis that our Embassies are acting like colonial masters and have scant regard for them and their problems and change of attitude or remedial measures are not in sight.

Pakistan is playing key role in the war against terror but unfortunately it is being portrayed by our enemies negatively.

With this perception, we would urge the authorities concerned to set up proper mechanism to ensure achievements of the targets set by the President, otherwise envoys conferences would be nothing---more than a but tour back home.●