Pakistan appoints journalist Maleeha Lodhi as UN envoy

Pakistan has appointed renowned journalist and writer Maleeha Lodhi as the country's permanent representative at the UN, the foreign ministry said Monday.

Lodhi has been editor of leading English newspapers in the country and currently writes on security issues.

Previously, Lodhi has twice served as Pakistan's ambassador to the US (1993-1996 and 1999-2002) and as Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain (2003-2008).

She has also served as a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Affairs (2001-2005).

"It has been decided to appoint Maleeha Lodhi as permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations based in New York. She will assume her responsibilities in February 2015," Xinhua quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying.

She has taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and has been a Fellow at the Institute of Politics, Harvard University, and an international scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC.

She is a member of the National Defence University's Senate and a member of the advisory council of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Affairs.