'Liberal' Sherry Rehman is new Pakistan envoy to US

NEW DELHI: A day after Husain Haqqani was forced to resign, the Pakistan government wasted no time in appointing former interior minister Sherry Rehman as its envoy to the United States. Her predecessor Husain Haqqani was forced to resign late on Tuesday following the 'Memogate' scandal, which upset the country's powerful military establishment and strained relations with the civilian government.

"We all have to forge a progressive, dynamic Pakistan out of the ashes that are often left to us by the fire of terrorism, by the fire of extremism," Rehman said in a speech on Wednesday.

A member of Parliament belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party, Rehman is widely considered to be a liberal voice, especially on account of her vocal support for women's and minority rights. Her vocal opposition to the country's blasphemy laws and her resignation from government in March, 2009, over "differences of opinion" with President Zardari on restrictions on press only served to fuel her "liberal image".

Rehman appeals to the military establishment, which is smarting from the 'Memogate' revelations. The former minister is viewed as "perhaps not friendly" to the military establishment, but there is "no overt animosity either". The former interior minister is founding chairwoman of an Islamabad-based think-tank, the Jinnah Institute.

The institute's recent report on Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan was closer to military establishment's position on the issue. Her acceptability to Pakistan's powerful military and her reputation of being a liberal could explain Rehman emerging as the consensus candidate, acceptable to both the military and President Asif Ali Zardari.

Allegations have been leveled against Haqqani that he engineered a memo to Washington asking for its help in reining in the military in exchange for a raft of pro-American policies. Though, the former ambassador denied any connection to the memo, it was enough to upset the powerful military in Pakistan.

Haqqani was summoned to Pak by the army after the scandal broke a few days ago. The former envoy to the US is understood to have wanted to tilt the balance of power away from the military to the civilian government, a desire that earned him the distrust of the military.