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New Pakistan envoy to U.S.

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Durrani for India-Pakistan rapprochement

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday announced the appointment of Mahmud Ali Durrani, a retired General and an ardent advocate of India-Pakistan rapprochement, as its new Ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Durrani will replace the incumbent, Jehangir Karamat, former Chief of the Army Staff. Mr. Karamat appears to have been made the scapegoat for the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation deal. It was evident that all was not well between Mr. Karamat and the military establishment here when the former failed to reach Islamabad to be available for consultations during the one-day trip of U.S. President George W. Bush in the first week of March.

Mr. Durrani, who served as military secretary under Zia-ul-Haq, has been the coordinator of a Track-II group called Balusa, which is engaged in promotion of better ties between India and Pakistan.

His book India and Pakistan — The Cost of Conflict and the Benefits of Peace is well known. Pakistan's Security Imperatives Year 2000 and Beyond (2000), Enhancing Security Through a Cooperative Border Monitoring Experiment: A Proposal for India and Pakistan (2001) and Pakistan's Strategic Thinking and the Role of Nuclear Weapons (2004) are his other important publications.

A 1961 graduate of the Pakistan Military Academy, Maj.Gen. (retd.) Durrani has served in various Command/Staff and instructional appointments during his army career, a Foreign Ministry statement said. He attended a mid-career Armour course in the U.S. in 1973 and the Basic Airborne Course from Fort Benning, U.S. in 1982 and served as Pakistan Defence and Military Attaché in Washington from 1977 to 1982.

He was the Military Secretary to the President of Pakistan from 1983 to 1986 and Chairman and Chief Executive of Pakistan Ordnance Factories Board (POF) from 1992-1998.

After retirement from the army, Mr. Durrani is actively involved in working towards peace between India and Pakistan as a member of a dedicated group of Pakistanis and Indians.

As part of a process sponsored by the United Nations, he worked with senior ex-officials from the U.S., Russia and Iran to find a peaceful settlement to the Afghan crisis.

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