The Living Scripts | Ambassador (r) Abdul Salik Khan
The 31st session of IPS’ oral history project ‘The Living Scripts’ was held with Ambassador (r) Abdul Salik Khan in two sittings on September 16, 2022, and December 11, 2023.
Ambassador Salik is a member of the 1986 batch of the Foreign Service of Pakistan. Among the many posts he held were Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Indonesia. He also served as the consul general of Pakistan at Jeddah. He is currently serving as the chairman of the Balochistan Public Service Commission.
Sharing his background, Ambassador Salik said he was born in Quetta in a Yousafzai family. His father was in the Indian army before independence. When Pakistan came into being, he opted for Pakistan and migrated. His mother was a social activist.
He apprised that his primary education was in a cantonment school in Quetta. Later, he joined a technical high school where he did matriculation. He went to Government Science College Quetta, where he earned a BSc in zoology, botany, and chemistry. After graduating from Balochistan University and passing the civil service examination, he joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan.
His first posting was as a section officer in Canada and Latin America. He recalled that during his stay at the Foreign Office, one of the important incidents was the Ojhri Camp episode in 1988.
He then went for an Arabic language course in Egypt as a desk officer. After that, he served in the UN and then in Muscat, Oman. He recalled the visit of the then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to Oman as a memorable occasion of this period.
After returning to headquarters, he served as a desk officer at NBBS (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka). He later served as deputy chief of protocol, Quetta, and afterward as head of chancery and first secretary in Germany for three years. It was during this stay that fourth martial law was imposed in Pakistan and he recalled how the picture of former prime minister was removed from the halls of embassy in Berlin.
He was then posted in Yemen. He recalled the happenings of 9/11 during his stay in Yemen in 2001.
On his return, he became director of the Gulf Region. In 2006, he went to China to serve as a consular. He also shared his experiences of the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. Later, he held the position of Pakistan’s consul general in Jeddah. It has been famous that the Consul General in Jeddah cannot complete his tenure because of tough circumstances. However, he effectively fulfilled his tenure there and gained a great reputation.
After that, he served as director general for Afghanistan and director general for China. He then assumed the position of Pakistan’s ambassador to Kazakhstan. He shared his experiences during his stay as he was awarded the highest presidential gold medal in Kazakhstan.
His last posting was in Indonesia as an ambassador. Since his retirement in 2020, he has been serving as the chairman of the Balochistan Public Service Commission. While sharing his experience in BPSC, he said that young people must be encouraged and selected on merit to transform Pakistan into an organized and progressive country.
