The Secretary-General announced the appointment of Ashraf Qazi as his Special Representative for Sudan on 11 September 2007.

He is head of the peace support operation in Sudan. UNMIS was mandated by Security Council Resolution 1590 following a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army.

SRSG Qazi is a Pakistani national. He was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq since 2004. Prior to his appointment as the Special Representative for Iraq, Mr. Qazi served from 2002 to 2004 as Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States in Washington D.C. Before that posting, he had been Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India since 1997.

Mr. Qazi was Pakistan’s Ambassador to China from 1994 to 1997. He also served as Ambassador to the former Soviet Union and later Russian Federation (1991-1994), the former German Democratic Republic (1990-1991) and Syria (1986-1988). His assignments in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad included Director of East Asia (1975-1978), Director-General for Policy Planning and Afghanistan (1982-1986) and Additional Foreign Secretary for Policy Planning, Afghanistan, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1988-1990).

In addition, Mr. Qazi held various diplomatic assignments in Copenhagen, Tokyo, Cairo, Tripoli and London.

Mr. Qazi was born in 1942. He is married with two daughters.

Mr. Qazi succeeds Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, who left the post in December 2006.