Jalil Abbas Jilani is a retired Pakistani diplomat who served in

Grade 22 Grade 22 (also referred to as BPS-Apex) is the highest attainable rank for a Civil Servant in Pakistan. Grade 22 is equal to a 4-star rank of the Pakistan Armed Forces. With over five hundred thousand civil servants and bureaucrats in Pakistan, onl ...

as the

Foreign Secretary of Pakistan The Foreign Secretary of Pakistan (Urdu: ) is the Federal Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Secretary, as in all other ministries of Government of Pakistan, is the bureaucratic head of the Ministry, who is a BPS-22 grade officer o ...

. He is currently serving as the

Caretaker Caretaker may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Caretaker'' (film), a 1963 adaptation of the play ''The Caretaker'' * '' The Caretakers'', a 1963 American film set in a mental hospital * Caretaker, a character in the 1974 film '' ...

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

, in office since 17 August 2023. He was born on February 3, 1955, in

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the old ...

to a family known for high-profile

bureaucrat A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", w ...

s. He served as the 22nd Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States from December 2013 to February 2017, and previously served as the

from March 2012 to December 2013. He currently serves as a Senior Director at the

Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies The Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS, ur, ) is an independent research think tank founded by the Pakistan Air Force with specializations in the domains of aerospace, aviation industry, national security, doctrine, strategy, and e ...

(CASS).

Early life and education

Jilani was born into an influential family in

, his father Azhar Hussain Jilani and his elder brother Asghar Hussain Jilani both having been civil servants, the latter having served as Chief Secretary of the Punjab province, while former prime minister

Yusuf Raza Gilani Yusuf Raza Gilani (Urdu: ; born 9 June 1952), is a Pakistani politician who served as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 25 March 2008, until his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 26 April 2012. He ...

is his cousin. His uncle Tassadaq Jilani is the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, occupying the position in 2013–2014. He graduated with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

and later on obtained an

M.Sc A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degree in Defense and Strategic Studies. He then joined the

Foreign Service of Pakistan The Foreign Service of Pakistan ( ur, ) is part of the Central Superior Services of Pakistan. It was formally created in October 1952, after having been an improvised organization since the creation and independence of Pakistan in 1947. Its o ...

in March 1979. A

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

, besides Urdu and English, he’s also fluent in French, Arabic, Seraiki, Punjabi and Pashto.

Career

Jillani currently serves as a Minister in Interim PM Kakar’s Cabinet. He served as the deputy secretary at Prime Minister's Office between 1989 and 1992, and as the deputy high commissioner to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

between 1999 and 2003. He headed the South Asia desk at the Foreign Office between 2003 and 2007, during which time he was also appointed as the Ministry's Spokesman. In 2007, he was commissioned as Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia and served until 2009, when he was tasked as Ambassador of Pakistan to

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

based out of

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Jilani was promoted to the highest rank of BPS-22 grade in 2010 and consequently became the country's Foreign Secretary in March 2012, the top civil service official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Jilani was emerged as a candidate for the role of Interim Prime Minister of Pakistan.

References

1955 births Living people Ambassadors of Pakistan to the United States Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan Alumni of the University of Oxford {{Pakistan-diplomat-stub