She is strikingly beautiful, with a charm that reminds many of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan’s new foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, is widely seen as the rising star of the country’s politics. This week she is facing her first challenge with the start of new peace talks with India.

At 34, she is not only the country's youngest foreign minister ever, but also the first woman to hold the post. Both things are prompting critics to find her unfit for the top job.

Pakistani journalist Abid Hasan: “I want to see young talented politicians in Pakistan, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t believe she has the right papers. It’s only because of her family ties that she is able to take this position.”

Family ties
The fact she is the daughter of politician Malik Ghulam Noor Rabbani and niece of the former chief minister of Punjab has indeed helped her achieve her political ambitions. Khar got her father’s seat in 2002, when a law came into force that required MPs to hold a college degree.

With a degree in hotel management, her family’s stronghold on Punjab enabled her to work in the economy ministry under former President Pervez Musharraf.

In the background
Khar quietly replaced Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during a cabinet reshuffle earlier this year.
President Zardari reportedly dumped Qureshi for refusing to acknowledge the diplomatic immunity Washington claimed Raymond Davis had after shooting dead two Pakistanis.

During the five months that Khar worked as acting foreign minister, the public hardly had a chance to appreciate her potential talent. Khar rarely gives any interviews and critics consider her a weak speaker. She never bothered to prove them wrong. Due to the huge popularity her family enjoys in her constituency, she has never needed to campaign for a seat.

According to another journalist, Hasan Zaidi, this will be the first time the public will be able to judge Khar’s skills.

“People know her by face, but she has never been in a major spotlight, as she is now. She never had to deal with foreign crises directly because she was in a junior position. She will have to do this now and people will be judging her on how she is able to handle herself”.

Foreign affairs
Khar's appointment came at a crucial time in Pakistan’s foreign politics. Since US special forces located and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the world has been closely watching Islamabad's every move in its fight against terrorism, much of it homegrown.

President Zardari, some analysts say, is hoping to create goodwill by having a beautiful young woman represent the country. But her age may backfire when she sits down at the negotiating table. The Indian FM she will face at the peace talks, S.M. Krishna, is 45 years her senior.

The chairperson of the Pakistani Institute of International Affairs Masuma Hasan isn’t too worried about that:

“No, she does not carry the experience of a lifetime in diplomacy or in other high positions in public life, which is always an advantage in such positions. But her appointment did not come as a surprise to me and I hope, now that she has been appointed, she will not be removed, as that would certainly send a negative signal. I hope she will grow in her job at not too much cost to the country".

She also highlights the gender aspect:

“The government in power in Pakistan has given many high-profile responsibilities to women, such as the Speaker of the National Assembly, the chair of the Competition Commission of Pakistan, or the head of Karachi Port Trust. It is committed to bringing women into the mainstream of national life.” 
 

A friendly face
Though Khar still has to prove herself in Pakistan, her good looks have already captivated the Indian media. The Mumbai Mirror even jokingly linked Khar’s arrival with a painful memory the city shares with Pakistan in a daring headline: “Pak bomb lands in Mumbai”.

After decades of deadlock, it was cricket diplomacy that got the two rival nations talking again. Will Khar's charm offensive finally lead to actual results?

(db/cl)