Geetika Srivastava is first woman charge d’affaires at Indian mission in Pak
Indian government has appointed Geetika Srivastava, joint secretary (Indo-Pacific) in the external affairs ministry, to head the post of chargé d’affaires in the Indian high commission in Islamabad, said a report by Hindustantimes.com citing people familiar with the matter. She will be the first woman diplomat to hold this post in the Indian high commission in Islamabad.
Suresh Kumar, the current Indian chargé d’affaires in Islamabad, is expected to return to New Delhi soon, said the report citing the people . Saad Warraich, currently director general of the Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey desk at the Pakistan’s foreign ministry will be the new chargé d’affaires in New Delhi.
Salman Sharif, the previous Pakistani chargé d’affaires, was recently called back to Islamabad. Srivastava is expected to take up her assignment in Islamabad shortly.
Both the Indian and Pakistani missions in Islamabad and New Delhi are not been headed by high commissioners since August 2019, when Islamabad downgraded diplomatic relations following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by the Indian government. Relations between both the nations have been at an all-time low following a string of terror attacks on Indian soil.
Geetika Srivastava, a 2005 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, has served in the Indian embassy in China during 2007-09. She has also had stints at the Regional Passport Office in Kolkata and as director of the Indian Ocean Region division in the external affairs ministry.
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