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Journalism of Courage
ISLAMABAD, May 2: Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister Gohar Ayub Khan resigned today saying that he wasn’t devoting time to his constituency and that he would like to spend more time within the country with a portfolio that did not entail frequent travels abroad.
An official statement issued in Islamabad this afternoon said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had accepted his request but did not say who had replaced Ayub or where Ayub has been reassigned.Later in the day, at the weekly foreign office briefing, the spokesman said that he had nothing to add. “I have no comment to make on this save that the government has issued a statement,” he said.
His appointment in February 1997 as Pakistan’s foreign minister surprised many as Ayub had little experience of foreign affairs. “That may have been the reason for his exit. He was quite undiplomatic,” says one journalist based in Islamabad.
A fortnight ago, talking to a local news agency, Ayub bitterly criticised American peace initiatives in Afghanistan.Many say that this may have led to his exit.
Gohar Ayub, a former Army officer and son of late Pakistan president Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan, is a central member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party, and has served as speaker of the Parliament in the previous PML-N government between 1990-93.
Ayub is elected from Ghazi, an area also known as the Hazara belt of the North West Frontier Province. While the NWFP is predominantly Pakhtoon-speaking, the Hazara belt comprises people who speak a different language, Hindko. The people of Hazara came into national prominence when General Ayub was president of Pakistan. Since then, they have been resented by the mainly Pakhtoon population of the NWFP.
“Ayub has successfully used that resentment between the Hazaras and the Pakhtoons to stay on top of the local politics,” says one political observer. Ayub has been elected a record five times from his constituency.Ayub was named in a scandal in the early months of his tenure when a woman with him wasrobbed of her jewelry while they were at a restaurant on a hill near Islamabad. There were calls for his resignation at that time but this scandal soon died down.
There is speculation that Pakistan information minister Mushahid Hussain may replace Ayub as foreign affairs minister. Hussain, a former journalist, has extensive experience in foreign affairs. Another name that has been mentioned is that of Senator Akram Zaki, a former Ambassador to the USA and China. Zaki, a career diplomat, was appointed Director General of Foreign Affairs in Sharif’s previous government.
