Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved the appointment of several ambassadors and heads of Pakistani missions in various capitals of the world on the advice of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

There was no official announcement, but sources confirmed that Shehbaz finally gave the go-ahead for the appointment of ambassadors and consuls general.

According to sources, Rahim Hayat Qureshi has been appointed ambassador to Brussels. He would replace Amna Baloch, who was appointed foreign minister in September last year.

Other appointments include Syed Haider Shah as Pakistan’s new ambassador to the Netherlands, Abdul Hameed Bhutta as ambassador to Tokyo, Najeeb Durrani as ambassador to Ghana, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry as ambassador to Indonesia and Malik Farooq as envoy to South Africa. Similarly, Aqsa Nawaz and Tariq Karim are to be Pakistan’s new ambassadors to African countries.

Marghoob Saleem Butt would be posted as ambassador to Bern, Asma Rabbani to the Philippines, Aamir Shaukat as to Egypt, Moazzam Shah to South Korea and Adil Gillani to Morocco and Sheheryar Akbar to the Czech Republic

Zaman Mehdi was appointed Consul General of Pakistan in Chicago, Tanvir Bhatti as Consul General in Chengdu, Wajid Hashmi as Consul General in Melbourne and Imtiaz Gondal was posted as the new Consul General of Pakistan in Manchester.