WASHINGTON, Dec 16: Pakistan’s former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan was appointed on Tuesday the new Pakistan scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington.

Mr Khan will spend eight months in residence at the Wilson Centre, beginning in January 2009, carrying out research and writing on a book project looking at the impact on Pakistan of the conflict in Afghanistan, as well as the broader regional and international implications of that conflict.

Mr Khan succeeds Dr Samia Altaf, the Wilson Centre’s 2007-08 Pakistan scholar, who during her stay at the Centre worked on a project titled Improving Aid Effectiveness: A Case Study of the Health and Population Sectors in Pakistan.