Ex-British High Commissioner (HC) to Pakistan Thomas Drew has been appointed as the Director General (DG) Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan at the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The new department has started its functions from Wednesday.
In June this year, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced the merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to form FCDO. The idea was to ensure that the UK’s developmental and diplomatic efforts could best work together “to safeguard British interests and values overseas” and “to seize the opportunities ahead.
The upgraded position of DG MENA, Pakistan and Afghanistan has been created at the FCDO with main responsibilities includes delivery of UK policy to the region and to deals with the issues of National Security, Crisis Management, Humanitarian and Migration. The UK government appointed Thomas Drew for this important position owing to his vast experience of Pakistan and the region.
Drew was the British High Commissioner to Pakistan from February 2016 until October 2019. Similarly, he also worked as Political Counsellor in the British High Commission in Pakistan from 2006 to 2008.
Moreover, an experienced British civil servant of Pakistani origin Moazzam Malik has been appointed as the DG Africa at FCDO. Malik, a senior official of the previous DFID was the Director General, Country Programmes for the DFID, overseeing the UK’s bilateral development partnerships around the world.
