Dr Maleeha Lodhi to be sent to New York as envoy

ISLAMABAD: The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to appoint Dr Maleeha Lodhi as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN in New York. She is expected to assume her responsibilities in February 2015.

Dr Maleeha will be the first woman to represent Pakistan at the United Nations. This will also be the government’s first senior appointment of a female to its foreign policy team.

The appointment shows that the Prime Minister is reaching out to professionals outside party circles and the bureaucracy to inject fresh blood and a renewed momentum to his government’s foreign policy.

She will take charge at a time of mounting challenges in relations with India and at a pivotal time for the region as the new ‘ national unity’ government in Kabul faces the challenge of crucial transitions ahead for which Pakistan’s cooperation is seen as essential. Her appointment is seen in diplomatic circles as an effort by the government to select a person known to project Pakistan’s point of view forcefully.

Dr Lodhi brings rich diplomatic experience to her new assignment. She served twice as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US under two different governments, first during Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s first term. At that time she was associated with the Congressional removal of nuclear sanctions against Pakistan. She also arranged the visit to Islamabad of the then first lady of America, Hilary Clinton. She dealt with the US administration under two different Presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.


Her second term was just as eventful as it spanned the post 9/11 turn in Pakistan-US relations. She became a prominent face on Western television defending Pakistan at a particularly difficult time for the country.

She then served for five years as Pakistan’s High Commissoner to the UK, becoming a familiar figure both in official circles and the Pakistani community. On the 60th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence she organized a big music and cultural event at Trafalgar Square in an unusual display of public diplomacy. This prompted a piece about her in the New York Times titled ‘A Pakistani envoy in Britain defuses cultural landmines’.

Dr Lodhi has been a prominent voice in the country on foreign policy and security issues and has been a frequent speaker at the National Defence University .

She entered diplomacy after a career in journalism, which saw her serve as editor of two leading English newspapers. She was the founding editor of The News and has been associated with the Jang/Geo group for over 15 years. She became the first woman in Asia to become the editor of a national daily.

She has taught at the London School of Economics. She has also been an academic fellow at Harvard University and at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC.

She is the author of two books and in 2010 edited what became a best seller in the country called ‘Pakistan: Beyond the crisis state.’

Dr Lodhi is also the recipient of the Presidential award of Hilal e Imtiaz for public service