On September 4, 2007, the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Ashraf Qazi as his new Special Representative in Sudan. His main task will be the supervision of the UN's peacekeeping force in Sudan's Southern region.

Between 2004 and 2007 he was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in charge of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq. His predecessor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing on August 19, 2003.

Between 2002 and 2004 Qazi was Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.. Before that he was Pakistan's High Commissioner to India (since 1997), ambassador to China (1994-97), to Russia (1991-94), to then-East Germany (1990-91) and Syria (1986-88). While at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, he served as Director of East Asia (1975-1978), Director-General for Policy Planning and Afghanistan (1982-1986) and Additional Foreign Secretary for Policy Planning, Afghanistan, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1988-1990).