Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri

Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri (Urdu: خورشيد محمود قصورى; b. 18 June 1941), is a Pakistani senior statesman and a career diplomat who served as the 26th Minister of Foreign Affairs from 23 November 2002 until 15 November 2007.

Hailing from a political family, Kasuri joined the Foreign service in 1960s, and played a crucial role in the foreign politics of East-Pakistan in 1970s where he became noted for his diplomatic skills, although he became aware of atrocities committed by Pakistan's authorities. In 1970s, he served in the Foreign ministry, where he was the director of the directorate of Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Affairs. His political activism started in 1980s through the MRD alliance led by Benazir Bhutto, while continuing his foreign service. He was brought into international arena and political fame by Shaukat Aziz in 2004, and was a noted for his diplomatic skills to serve for his country. In foreign politics, he helped normalize relations with Israel, Russia, India, and the European Union, and had put forwarded the neutral policies towards other countries. He unsuccessfully contested in a 2008 general elections and subsequently developed serious disagreements with his party's leadership, leading the events to join him the Pakistan Movement for Justice in 2011.

Apart from his statesmanship, he had tenured as a professor at the University of Paris and University of Nice in France, and in 2008, he assumed the professorship as a professor of political science as well as the executive directorship of the Beaconhouse National University (BNU).