Pakistan’s incoming Consul General to Saudi Arabia, Aftab Ahmed Khokar, has represented his nation during some of its toughest times in his long career with Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry. He represented Pakistan in international forums while serving at its permanent mission in Geneva.

He raised the topic of excavation work around Islam’s third holy shine, Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries and demanded the implementation of the recommendations of Judge Richard Goldstone in the United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

Khokar, a career diplomat with 23 years of experience in the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was due to arrive in Jeddah yesterday to take up his new role in Jeddah as consul general. He was working in the Pakistani Parliament division in Islamabad prior to this posting.

While speaking with Arab News over phone from Islamabad, Khokar said that the welfare of the Pakistani community is the main objective for him.

This will be first his posting in the Gulf region.

His predecessor Abdul Salik Khan, who had worked from March 2010 to December 2012, is now posted at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Islamabad.