Munir Butt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr Munir Butt, CMG, Ph.D (1940-) is a former British Diplomat and economic and foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major. He was educated at the prestigious St. Paul's School, Darjeeling and Balliol College, Oxford. He gained his doctorate from the London School of Economics in Political Sciences.[1]. He joined the Conservative Party while at London School of Economics and entered the Foreign Service in 1970, thus fulfilling the requirement to be a British citizen for 10 years before entering the British Civil Service. He is regarded as a world expert on Indian and Pakistani affairs, and was a personal advisor in the region to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It is said that the character of Lord John Marbury is based on Butt, although this was never said explicitly by writer Aaron Sorkin.[2][3]. In 1994 he was appointed High Commissioner of Pakistan by John Major. The appointment of Butt was contentious at the time, due to claims of conflict of interest. However Butt insisted that he considered himself a British citizen, and that no conflict of interest entered his mind[4]. He is the grand-nephew of the First Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. As such, he is a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, who have had significant influence over Indian politics since the Premiership of Jawaharlal Nehru (who was India's first Prime-Minister. His connections and advice were particularly helpful in 1997, when India moved missiles near to the Pakistani border, triggering a diplomatic crisis.