Pakistan's envoy to US Ali Jahangir Siddiqui resigns

Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Ali Jehangir Siddiqui stepped down from his post on Tuesday, the media reported.

The outgoing Ambassador said that during his tenure the trust deficit present between the two countries shrunk as they looked for shared ground on diplomatic issues, including the Afghanistan war.

Siddiqui said he was leaving the Pakistan-US ties in better condition and the two countries were getting engaged in contacts at the high level, Geo News reported.

He said that there were some negative tweets in January sent by the American officials in regards to Pakistan, but added that now the situation has come up to the point where US President Donald Trump in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan sought help in bringing the Afghanistan war to an end.

"Pakistan, as an important stakeholder, will continue to play a role in bringing an end to the Afghan war," he said.

New Pakistani envoy to US, Asad Majeed Khan, was expected to take charge soon, the report said.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government on October 4 announced that it had decided to remove political appointees from key ambassadorial positions across the world.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry earlier said in a media talk that Siddiqui was appointed on political grounds by the former Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government, therefore it will be best for him to step down from his office himself or the government would be forced to remove him.

--IANS

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