Of all the different streams and cells within the vast and labyrinthine administrative structure that Britain bequeathed to what were first two and then eventually three of its successor states in the Indian Subcontinent, none could capture the imaginations of the teeming populations in these three countries, as the Foreign Service. Groomed to handle the nation's affairs in the international arena, from representation abroad to guarding its interests - using the art of diplomacy - in dealings with external powers, the unparalleled prestige and sense of intrigue that attached themselves to a career in the Indian, or Pakistani, or Bangladeshi foreign service remains unmatched to this day.

The job description not only called for, it also attracted the best among us. Not surprisingly, from Rawalpindi to Gujarat to Chittagong, parents of young ladies of a certain age would find the greatest reassurance in managing to marry off their daughters to a rising officer in their respective nation's foreign service. And today of course, women themselves make up a growing proportion of the foreign service cadres, not only in this country but worldwide.

Although I never entered the field myself, the high esteem in which I tend to hold them derives from getting to know quite a few of them from close quarters over the years. Knowledgeable, worldly men of substance, integrity and purpose, such as Farooq Sobhan, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Tarique Karim, to name just a few, with whom I've formed precious bonds of what is ultimately friendship, even if they are quite senior to me in years. It gives me less joy to note that nowadays, some of the qualities I mentioned seem rarer in today's occupants of the Foreign Office, but that can be a topic for another day. The purpose of this write up is to pay tribute to one who not only encompassed these qualities, but also so much more - to the extent that even the most seasoned professionals in the field viewed him with awe and admiration.

Ambassador Ali Kaiser Hasan Morshed, whose first death anniversary passed recently (November 23), was an honorary bachelor of science from the University of Oxford. In 1956 he began studying law and became a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School in 1958. In 1966 he became a member of Lincoln's Inn and practised as a barrister. In 1957 he joined the foreign service of the Republic of Pakistan and was posted in Brussels, Belgrade, Tokyo and Canberra, by the time of the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Interestingly, he had travelled to Oxford on the same ship as one of India's most famous sons, Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate in Economics. There were other famous names on that ship, such as Romila Thapar, the historian of early and medieval India. But in his memoirs, Sen writes about the friendship he struck up with Kaiser Morshed, as he would with his cousin Rehman Sobhan as well, one that endures to this day. On that ship though, it was Morshed's natural intelligence and easy intellect that left an impression on him.

That impression would be further reinforced in the years they would spend together at Oxford. Later, he would actually harbour a resentment within him as his friend would opt to join the Pakistan Foreign Service, writing in his autobiography: "I could not later help feeling some parochial sadness that the academic world did not manage to recruit a thinker of such extraordinary promise."

Indeed, we are left to speculate on what possible exploits there might have been in the world of academia for this son of K.G. Morshed, one of the few Bengali Muslim ICS (Indian Civil Service) officers in British India. But academia's loss, was unquestionably the nation's gain, as he along with others helped set up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in independent, but war-torn, Bangladesh. He was the Director General of Subcontinental Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1972 to 1976.

In those formative years, "With his profound wisdom, unparalleled legal acumen, matchless drafting ability and immense diplomatic skill, Ambassador Morshed significantly contributed to the laying of a solid foundation for the Foreign Ministry," wrote his erstwhile colleague, Ambassador CM Shafi Sami, in a moving tribute last year, that about covered the full range of the man's qualities.

Thereafter followed a string of ambassadorships. From October 1976 to April 1979, he was the Ambassador of Bangladesh in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, and from May 1979 to July 1982, in Bonn, East Germany. His next posting, from 1982 to 1984, was as the Permanent Representative of the Government of Bangladesh to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. It was during this period that I had the privilege of meeting him for the first time. He was every bit the suave, debonair diplomat, with a distinguished face that reflected his worldly soul.

He went on to serve as the foreign secretary, before retiring from active service in 1989, although he would continue advising the Ministry in legal matters for many years after that - a tribute to his unparalleled grasp of international law, as well as the legal nuances governing international waterways. Indeed, his mastery of this aspect of international law goes right back to one of his earliest assignments as a young diplomat after joining the Foreign Service of Pakistan, as an adviser to the Indus Commission under the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan (1960).

Ambassador Morshed's contributions to developing the legal framework for the management of international watercourses and the rights of co-riparian states, as well as for the use and protection of the sea and marine environment, are internationally recognised, particularly within the vast, labyrinthine UN system. Yet he retained his humility till the end, coupling it with a subtle, self-effacing wit that made him so well-loved among those who knew him. I remain convinced that the revered image of the Foreign Service in the countries of the Subcontinent, was built or at least reinforced by the institution's association with men of such substance, as Kaiser Morshed. Without any qualms, I can say they don't often make men like him anymore.