Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan's removal has raised many questions as some link his unceremonious ouster to his strong dissent to the government's plan to approach the UN for an independent international investigation into Benazir Bhutto's assassination, said a news report. The government issued two separate notifications, the first regarding the appointment of Salman Bashir, Pakistan's current ambassador to China, as Foreign Secretary and the other directing Khan to leave the office, the report published by the leading English language daily The News said. Khan had no prior intimation of these important notifications, as had been the civilized practice in bureaucracy. The notifications were delivered to Khan's Office by a dispatch rider. A director received it, as the secretary was not in his office at the time. Subsequently a director informed him while he was traveling in his car. Curiously the notifications coincided with the important bilateral visit of the Chinese foreign minister and it caught the foreign secretary completely off guard. Ironically just a few hours before receiving the notifications Khan wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi requesting him that he be relieved by May 31 after the review meetings of the fourth round of composite dialogue with India. He had cited health and personal reasons for the early exit. Khan took a strong exception to the way the whole matter had been handled. Hence it was no surprise when Khan, who has been the pillar of Pakistan-China relations, and previously served as ambassador to China, did not turn up at the dinner hosted by Qureshi in honor of his Chinese counterpart. And that is precisely the reason he excused himself from the Chinese foreign minister's meeting with President Pervez Musharraf. The unexpected notifications were as much a surprise for Ambassador Bashir as these were for Khan. Baffled Bashir even telephoned Khan when he learnt about it. The report said that Khan's strong dissenting note representing the institutional standpoint on the government's plan to seek UN-led probe into Bhutto's assassination hastened his exit. Initially, he had verbally communicated it to the prime minister about a month back and subsequently also submitted a detailed written note. Ruling Pakistan People's Party Co-chairperson Asif Zardari and his key aides had been particularly irked by Khan's standpoint. This was quite evident by Zardari's rash remarks against the foreign secretary and Pakistan's representative Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative to UN, who had also advised against such a move. In an interview with a private TV channel, Zardari had attacked them, saying, “Munir Akram and all these people are inflexible, lack thinking and if Pakistani bureaucracy and establishment had a vision, Pakistan would not be in the state as it is today.” __
