Agha Shahi

Life & Legacy

Agha Shahi (Urdu: آغا شاہی; 25 August 1920 – 6 September 2006), NI, was a Pakistani career Foreign Service Officer who was the leading civilian figure in the military government of former President General Zia-ul-Haq from 1977 to 1982. A diplomat and technocrat by profession, he joined the Foreign Services in 1951 and held important diplomatic assignments in the United States, China, and the United Nations. He served as the Foreign Secretary – the leading bureaucratic position in Pakistan Government – in 1973 until 1977, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government was dismissed.
However, he immediately served as the foreign policy adviser to the upcoming Chief Martial Law Administrator General Zia-ul-Haq, who appointed him as the Foreign Minister shortly after assuming the control of the country. In 1982, after losing General Zia's favour when he made an attempt to keep country as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, he lost his ministry to senior military officer Lieutenant General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan. As a result, his relationship with General Zia-ul-Haq and his military government further deteriorated, with General Zia complaining about Shahi's speech on improving Pakistan's relations with the Soviet Union and the Non-Aligned Movement.
He departed from the country in 1982 to join the United Nations General Assembly and served as the Chairman of UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination until 1990. He also served as the Chairman of the Pakistan delegation at World Conference on Human Rights. During his last years, he associated with the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS), Islamabad where he served as its president until his death in 2006.