JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia); The Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government has called back General (R) Bilal Akbar and appointed Khurrum Rathore as Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
According to Khalid Nawaz Cheema , special correspondent of NEWSMAN in Jeddah , General (R) Bilal Akbar has confirmed to his close circle in Saudi Arabia that he would retire as Pakistan’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and go back to Pakistan on February 14, 2022. General (R)
Bilal Akbar’s had performed Umra in Mecca on Thursday before departing from Saudi Arabia for Pakistan on February 14, 2022.
Meanwhile , Bilal Akbar has declined the request of private media outlets saying since he was retiring it would not be fine to give interview to any media outlets.
In a related development , Khurrum Rathore had held a meeting with Foreign minister , Shah Mahmood Qureshi , at the Foreign Office the other day.
Its likely that Khurrum .Rathore will reach Saudi Arabia next week to take charge as Pakistan:s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Khurrum Rathore is a career diplomat and has rich experience in diplomacy . He would use his experience and professional skill to promote ties between Islamabad and Riyadh.
Bilal Akbar had taken over as Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia in January 2021 after retiring as Lieutenant General in 2020.
His performance as ambassador to Saudi Arabia had been unsatisfactory and prime minister, Imran Khan, had decided to replace him as Pakistan’s envoy to Saudi Arabia for his poor performance . Mr Bilal was offered some new assignments by the government on retiring from Saudi Arabia, but these options did not mature as some important players back home did not buy the idea of giving any new assignment to the guy.