The 'great Akbar’ of Hyderabad shakes hands with Pak journalists in a surprise gesture

Hyderabad: Syed Akbaruddin, who is serving as India’s permanent representative at the United Nations, has been the talk of the town in recent times. It was on August 16 at around 9 pm Indian standard time (IST) at the United Kingdom Security Council’s media hall in New York where the atmosphere was lighted up. In the council party’s informal meeting, the Kashmir affair and the scrapping of Article 370 were being discussed. The members of the media were looking forward to what had been proven in the Kashmir affair and the scrapping of Article 370.

Pakistan’s representative Maleeha Lodhi was the first to enter the room. She said, “The council itself discussing on this is a big victory.” After this, she left the room without even addressing the media. Next was China’s representative Zhang Jun, who said the same.

The next was India’s representative, Syed Akbaruddin. He walked in with calmness and self-confidence and addressed the media with a bright smile. Three Pakistani journos asked the first question. “When will the peace talks be initiated with Pakistan?” they asked. He immediately got down from the stage and shook hands with the journalists. With this gesture, he gave the message of ‘The victory is ours; the world is along with us.’

He is the sole reason behind Pakistan-China’s effort regarding Article 370 being unsuccessful. Another interesting fact about Syed is that he is from Hyderabad.

Akbar belonged to a well-educated family. He was born and brought up in Hyderabad itself. His father Syed Bashiruddin worked as the head of the Journalism department at Osmania University. Later on, he also was the Vice-Chancellor of BR Ambedkar Open University. He was India’s ambassador in Qatar. His mother Zeba Bashiruddin also worked at the Women’s college and later on worked at Satyasai University as an English professor.

Akbaruddin completed his primary education in 1960 at the Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet. He topped the civil services exam in 1985 and joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He has also served as the Indian Counsellor of Indian High Commission at Islamabad in Pakistan. He was also the official spokesperson of the department of foreign affairs from 2012-2105. He was elected as India’s permanent representative at the United Nations in 2016.

He was the main reason behind the banning of Jaish-e-Mohammed and declaring Hafeez Saeed as an International terrorist.