Golf enthusiast Sohail Mahmood faces first big diplomatic test

One of the greatest laments of Sohail Mahmood as Pakistani High Commissioner to Thailand (2009-13) was that he was still a novice golfer. “As for disappointments, the first is that I am not yet a good golfer! Seriously, I wouldn’t say there have been any real disappointments, but there are certain areas where we would like to progress more quickly. For instance, trade liberalisation between the two countries, which I would like to move at a faster pace because of the mutual benefits,” he said about ties between Pakistan and Thailand, to an interviewer in 2012.

 

He returned to Islamabad after a relatively unchallenging tenure to be posted to another country — Turkey, one of Pakistan’s closest allies — where challenges were few and far between, and presented him an opportunity to improve his golfing handicap.

 

But, with the announcement earlier this week that Mahmood will replace Abdul Basit as Pakistan’s envoy in New Delhi, golf will have to wait. He comes to Delhi at a time when relations between India and Pakistan are, arguably, at their lowest ever. Every day brings bad news in diplomatic relations between the two countries, but, then, in this relationship, things can change overnight as well.

 

Mahmood joined the Pakistan Foreign Service in 1985 as a career diplomat. He has had nothing directly to do with India in his career, which is why he managed to deliver his last big speech in Ankara about the 70 years of Pakistan-Turkey relations without once referring to India or Kashmir.

 

Mahmood was additional secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, Islamabad, where he earlier served as director general (2005-2009), director (1995-1998), and section officer (1986-1991). He was the first DG  in the ministry — this was a post created by the then Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and the DG reported directly to him.

 

Mahmood had been director general (Americas) when he was drafted in the new position for just a few weeks before being  sent to Thailand. Before that, he served in the South Asia and South-West Asia divisions. He has also served in Washington DC and New York. The assignment in New York was with Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. He was part of the Pakistani delegation to the UN Security Council in 2003-2004.

 

Mahmood is a Punjabi, which should make him feel comfortable in Delhi. He was born in Rawalpindi, where he completed his early schooling as well as university education. For further studies, he attended Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. He got an MA in history and then joined the foreign service.

 

Right now, he will have to address the public hostility towards Pakistan and revive ties that have been strained because of the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue. As the Prime Ministers of the two countries are likely to meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit next month, the optics for that meeting will have to be handled. Mahmood badly needs a hole-in-one to start him off in his new job.