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Aziz
is due to retire by year end but his posting in Delhi would
automatically get him extension in service
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By
Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
May 27 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistan has nominated its Foreign Ministry
spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan as High Commissioner to India, Information
Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said Tuesday, May 27.
Talking
to reporters in Islamabad, Rasheed said a relevant request has been sent
to India and an announcement would be made following a formal approval
from New Delhi.
Nomination
of Aziz Ahmad Khan - a career diplomat- has ended a month-long confusion
over the appointment of High Commissioner to India.
Several
names were being suggested to the important post but the government was
reluctant in announcing a final decision.
Prime
Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had suggested early this month that
Pakistan ambassador to China Riaz Ahmad Khan might be shifted to Delhi.
Aziz
is among the most senior cadres of the foreign ministry and is due to
retire by year end but his posting in Delhi would automatically get him
extension in service.
India
has named current ambassador to China, Shiv Shankar Menon, its new envoy
to Pakistan.
The
missions of the two countries have been operating in Islamabad and New
Delhi without their ambassadors during the impasse.
Pakistan
and India had curtailed diplomatic relations since December 2001, when
India recalled its envoy from Islamabad after blaming Pakistan for a
deadly attack on its parliament.
It
expelled Pakistan's envoy from New Delhi months later.
The
reappointment of high commissioners is believed to be an important step
towards resumption of talks between the nuclear rivals, after a
dangerous 17-month standoff.
As
a gesture of goodwill towards India, Pakistan Sunday, May 18, released
20 Indian nationals from its jails and handed them over to the Indian
authorities.
Pakistan
and India announced Friday, May 2, they were restoring full diplomatic
ties and heading towards resumption of talks to settle half a century
old disputes “for the economic and social betterment of their
peoples”.
On
the same day, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajepayee announced the restoration
of full diplomatic relations and air links with Pakistan as part of his
“efforts to leave a legacy of peace with Pakistan”.
Reciprocating
the Indian gesture, Jamali announced Tuesday, May 6, his country would
soon resume all air,
rail and bus links with New Deli.
India
and Pakistan have fought two of three wars over Kashmir and came
dangerously close to a fourth war in 1999 when alleged Pakistan-backed
forces occupied strategic peaks in the disputed Himalayan state.
