Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Ali Jehangir Siddiqui presented his credentials to President Donald Trump at the White House.
Siddiqui is an investment banker, and arrived in Washington D.C. on May 29 to assume his ambassadorial position at a sensitive time in U.S.-Pakistan relations, when the relations between the two countries have hit a low ebb.
The ceremony at the White House for foreign ambassadors signals that the new diplomats can start their assignment officially.
Siddiqui s a chairman of JS Bank Ltd, founded by his father Jehangir Siddiqui. He worked as a close aide to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
A graduate in economics from Cornell University, Siddiqui previously worked with Crosby Capital, a private equity asset management firm.
Following his nomination as the new ambassador to the U.S., by former prime minister Abbasi, Ali was summoned by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to face accusations of embezzlement and loss to the national exchequer to the tune of billions of rupees.
Meanwhile, despite the U.S. and Pakistan indicating a willingness to address each other’s security concerns revolving around Afghanistan, face a delicate job of putting the relations back on track.
The U.S. has eliminated Mullah Fazullah, a former anti-Pakistan TTP militant leader, who was operating out of Afghanistan. Islamabad, for its part, has been helping Afghanistan with reconciliation talks between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban insurgents.
At the same time, as laid out by Alice Wells, a senior State Department official, the U.S. has also been asking Pakistan to move against the Afghan Taliban, who are operating from its soil, and are unwilling to be part of peace talks with Kabul.
