ISLAMABAD: The government has approved its first batch of 15 ambassadorial postings but kept pending the nomination of envoys for key capitals.

Most of the appointments have been made against vacancies created after retirement of the incumbents, while in other cases the new officers will replace their colleagues returning to serve at the headquarters.

Many of the new appointments have been made from among the mid-career officers who will take charge in small and medium missions abroad.

Announcement of nominations for major capitals, including London, Washington and Abu Dhabi, and fate of the remaining 14 political ambassadors appointed by the PPP government was being keenly awaited, but like many other critical decisions the government chose to defer the matter for a while.

According to sources, the Foreign Office mandarins made an attempt to test the waters by suggesting posting of a career foreign service officer as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, a post till recently held by a political envoy, but the government kept the slot vacant although it approved other proposed names of career diplomats.

Political appointees traditionally have a 20 per cent quota in ambassadorial postings, but many of them are assigned to major capitals, creating heartburn among the career diplomats who worry about their prospects. The last government gave one-third of the ambassadorships of X category (most important) missions to political ambassadors.

It is expected that a major chunk of the appointments for the bigger stations would again go to political nominees.

Some at the foreign ministry, however, still saw the government’s consent to most of the proposed names as a “big achievement” that needed to be “appreciated”.

Those approved for ambassadorial appointments include Najamus Saqib (currently director general of the ECO, CARs and Iran-Turkey division) as envoy to Denmark; Imtiaz Ahmed (DG, China) as ambassador to Argentina; Ayesha Riaz (additional secretary, Europe) as ambassador to Austria; Ayaz Ahmed (DG, Europe I) as ambassador to Romania; Khalid Memon (DG, headquarters) as ambassador to Poland; Saeed Khan (DG, Europe II) as ambassador to Greece; Aizaz Chaudhry (additional secretary, UN, and spokesman) as ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg; Noor Jadmani (special secretary) as ambassador to Iran; Masroor Junejo (additional secretary, ECO and CARs) as high commissioner to South Africa; Zahid Nasrullah (director general, Middle East) as ambassador to South Korea; Attiya Mehmood (formerly posted to Jordan) as ambassador to Indonesia; Safdar Hayat (DG, audit and inspection) as ambassador to the Philippines and Dr Aman Rashid (DG, disarmament) as ambassador to Switzerland.