Boston University professor Husain Haqqani said his appointment as ambassador-at-large during a recent trip to Pakistan was “really sudden.”

Haqqani was visiting his wife, who recently won a seat in parliament, when he was offered a position that forced him to leave the country and his classes.

“I came to join her for my Spring Break, which is when the political leadership asked me to take up the new position,” he said in a phone interview from Pakistan. “Otherwise, I would have planned it in a way that I didn’t have to leave my students halfway.”

Haqqani, director of the Center for International Relations, said he will be formulating policies for a “democratic mood” in the Pakistani government as ambassador.

“I would hopefully be able to provide some input and shape ideas that will help Pakistan move in the direction of democracy,” he said.

“For me this is not a job; for me this is a role,” he said. “I had a job at BU.”

Haqqani, a College of Arts and Sciences professor, said he had a close relationship with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and acted as her advisor. His resume also boasts stints as advisor to former Prime Ministers Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and Nawaz Sharif and tenure as Pakistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1993.

As ambassador-at-large, Haqqani will essentially act as a “prime minister representative to foreign governments,” though the duties of the job have yet to be defined, he said.

Haqqani will take a leave of absence from BU for two years, but would like to resume teaching afterward, he said. Though he has not worked out definite plans with the university, he said he is sure the administration will come to a “reasonable agreement.”

“I hope that I could come back and teach and get back to my students and to my life at Boston University, which I have enjoyed immensely,” he said.

“I definitely love my students and I hope my students like me,” he said. “The work I do in the government will enhance my contribution as an academic.”

Haqqani is a “very brilliant guy” who understands political issues “both with an academic and inside perspective,” international relations department Associate Chairman William Grimes said.

“I think he should be a great asset to the country,” he said. “He is somebody who is able to really bridge misunderstandings between Washington and Pakistan, which I think will be pretty important.”

Grimes said an important part of Haqqani’s involvement with the Pakistani government is the trust he has gained of those around him.

“He is well known in Washington and has the trust of policy makers and academics there and elsewhere in the western world,” he said. “He also has a great deal of credibility in Pakistan and throughout other countries where he has worked.”

“He is very charismatic,” Grimes said. “He is a wonderful speaker and he cares about his students.”

“When he comes back he is going to have a lot of very interesting inside knowledge which I think will be very exciting for students who take his classes and attend his lectures,” he said.

Although ambassadors are diplomatically neutral, Haqqani often expressed his opinions while teaching his 300-level course, Diplomatic Practice, before the appointment, CAS sophomore Jared Woods said.

“He has said he’s opposed to [current President Perez] Musharraf,” Woods said.

While Haqqani advised President George W. Bush on occasion, Woods said the professor was “not a fan of Bush’s foreign policy.”

“He’s been a critic of the war from the start, before it actually failed,” he said. “Before we invaded Iraq, he had told the president that there were two different sects of Islam and the president didn’t realize it.”

Despite his intimate knowledge in the subject, Woods said Haqqani often preferred to hear students’ opinions instead of expressing his own.

“There was a lot of discussion, debates, throwing your opinions out there.” Woods said. “When it comes to diplomacy there’s no right or wrong.”

Chris Jordan, a College of Communication junior, said the professor’s diplomatic involvement was well known to the class, but said students discovered the ambassador’s appointment unexpectedly.

“It came as a surprise,” Jordan said. “We had no indication that he would be doing this. It was kind of a shock, a good shock.”

“I think professor Haqqani is a great person,” he said. “Speaking to him in class has been an amazing experience; he’s very well-spoken and he seems to know quite a bit about diplomacy. He tends to keep up with everything that’s going on in Pakistan and throughout the world.”

Staff reporter Leah Mennies contributed reporting to this article.