The 32nd session of IPS’ oral history project ‘The Living Scripts’ was held with Ambassador (r) Javed Hafeez in two sittings on October 14 and 21, 2022. Javed Hafeez is a former diplomat with a long service experience in the Middle East, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. He also served in Canada, Tajikistan, Myanmar, and Greece.
Sharing his background, Javed Hafeez told the audience that his ancestors migrated in 1896 from the region of East Punjab, in India, to different areas in Pakistan. He completed his primary and secondary education in Gojra and went to Government College Lahore in 1962 where he also got a chance to see President Ayub Khan. He did his BA (Hons) and Masters in Economics in 1964 and 1967, respectively.
In 1969, he started his professional career as a lecturer at Islamia College Peshawar where he taught for two years. In 1971, he appeared in the CSS exam and joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan under the 1972 batch.
After completing his period in the Civil Services Academy, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and afterward set off to Cairo to learn the Arabic language at the American University in 1974. After completing the language course, he was sent to Damascus, Syria, as third secretary on his first posting.
After serving in Damascus for three-and-a-half years, he was posted as second secretary to Ottawa, Canada, in 1978. During this posting, he also had to travel to Toronto frequently as there was no consulate in that city at that time. Afterward, he returned to Pakistan, served for two years in the UN Division, and participated in major UN conferences.
In 1982, he was posted to Jordan and, in 1983, he was reposted to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after a directive was issued regarding the requirement of two Arabic-speaking officials in the Pakistan Embassy. He served there for a long time till 1991. In 1992, he did a two-year course at National Defense College.
In 1994, he was posted to Dushanbe amid security concerns as there was a civil war going on in the mountains of Tajikistan between pro-Islamic and pro-communist groups. He, along with his colleagues, also contributed in the projection of Pakistan’s culture in Tajikistan. Afterward, he served in Myanmar. He was then transferred to Athens, Greece, in March 1999.
Javed Hafeez’s last posting was in the Foreign Ministry as additional secretary (deputy foreign minister) of the Middle East and Africa Divisions.
Since his retirement in 2007, he has been appearing on various Arabic TV channels as a discussant from Islamabad. In 2018, King Abdullah Centre for Arabic Language, Riyadh, included him among twenty non-Arab speakers of the Arabic language who had assumed important positions. He also writes columns in the Pakistan edition of Arab News, Daily Dunya, and other Pakistani and Gulf newspapers.
