Geetika Srivastava: Since India’s independence, there has never been a female head of mission in Pakistan. The new Charge d’Affaires (CDA) in Islamabad will be Geetika Srivastava, an officer in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) from the 2005 batch. Dr. M. Suresh Kumar, who is set to return to New Delhi, will be succeeded by her.
Woman IFS Officer to Lead Indian High Commission in Pakistan
The government has chosen a woman IFS officer to head its High Commission in Pakistan, despite the fact that the two countries currently have a degraded status of diplomatic representation in each other’s capitals — there are no High Commissioners, and the highest ranking diplomat is a CDA who is a Joint Secretary-rank equivalent officer. Srivastava oversees the Indo-Pacific division while working as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)’s main office. She worked in the Indian Embassy in China from 2007 to 2009 as a Mandarin speaker who had studied the language as part of her foreign language education. She has also worked as the Director of the MEA’s Indian Ocean Region division as well as the Regional Passport Office in Kolkata. There have been 22 heads of mission since Sri Prakasa was appointed the Indian High Commissioner to the then-Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, and they have all been men.
Diplomatic Dynamics Surrounding India-Pakistan High Commission Roles
Ajay Bisaria served as India’s final High Commissioner to Islamabad, however he was relieved of his duties after Pakistan opted to reduce the High Commission’s status after Article 370 was repealed in 2019. There had previously been female diplomats assigned to Pakistan, but not at the highest level. Since Islamabad was recently designated a “non-family” posting for Indian diplomats, it is also regarded as a difficult posting. This typically prevents female officers in Pakistan from accepting the position. Currently, the Indian High Commission employs a woman diplomat at the post of First Secretary. According to sources, Srivastava is anticipated to start her work in Islamabad soon. A new CDA has also been posted by Pakistan in New Delhi. Salman Sharif was replaced by career diplomat Saad Ahmad Warraich, who had worked at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York after he left India last month and returned to Islamabad.
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