Master Of The Game

Pakistan’s new foreign secretary will bank on the goodwill he built and the skills he sharpened during his India stint.

- Mandira Nayar

IT WAS ON a cricket ground that the legendary coach Gurcharan Singh first met Sohail Mahmood, Pakistan’s new foreign secretary. A match was in progress at the British High Commission in Delhi, and Singh was bowling. “A diplomat doesn’t have time to practise each day,” Singh said. “But Mahmood managed to connect with the ball each time. He is a good batsman.”

Singh, 84, made one request to Mahmood. He had left his village across the border when he was 12, and he wanted to go back home.

The visa came with astonishing speed—in a day. “I visited the Gaddafi stadium (in Lahore), where Mahmood had arranged a special visit with Pakistan administrators. I cannot explain what it means to me to have seen my house after 72 years. I met people who knew my parents.”

Mahmood may not have the ability to influence foreign policy or change the narrative. Foreign secretaries rarely do, especially in Pakistan. But his appointment after his India stint indicates which way the wind is blowing in Pakistan.

In his 19 months as Pakistan high commissioner, Mahmood underwent baptism by fire. He had been to South Block many times, but few of those meetings were friendly. An undeclared war, punctuated with ceasefire violations, became the new norm. A range of issues—Kulbhushan Jadhav’s imprisonment, terror attack at Pulwama and India’s Balakot strike—worsened relations between the two countries.