May 18, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 17: Pakistan on Saturday named its ambassador to China, Riaz Mohammad Khan, to be its high commissioner in New Delhi, four days after a similar move by India.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali announced his choice of Riaz Mohammad Khan in an interview with India’s state-run Doordarshan television on Saturday, an official at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat said.

Both countries have pulled out their envoys from China to be high commissioners at each other’s capitals in what will be a restoration of ambassador-level relations between them after a 17-month hiatus.

But while the interview was still to be telecast, it was not immediately clear whether Islamabad had received New Delhi’s consent to its proposal for Mr Khan’s appointment.

A foreign ministry statement about the appointment, which should follow such a consent, is awaited.

Only four days ago, India had named its envoy in China, Shiv Shanker Menon, to be its high commissioner in Islamabad.

There was no immediate information about when the two career diplomats will take charge of their new assignments that have remained vacant for varied periods as a consequence of intense military and diplomatic tensions between the two countries since a Dec 13, 2001 attack on Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants fighting its rule in Kashmir.

Mr Khan will succeed Jehangir Ashraf Kazi who was expelled by India last year at the height of tensions, which were marked by a military standoff in which both countries brought about one million troops on their borders. Mr Kazi is now Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.

Mr Menon will replace Vijay K. Nambiar, who was withdrawn by New Delhi from Islamabad soon after the Dec 13 attack, and he is now his country’s permanent representative at the United Nations.

Both countries had also cut down the strength of their missions in each other’s capital and appointed new acting high commissioners as tensions had started easing.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India will establish a fresh informal contact at Kathmandu on June 12 under track-2 diplomacy, adds Ihtasham ul Haque.

Sources told Dawn that former foreign secretary Niaz A. Naik would lead a four-member Pakistani delegation at the talks while the vice-chancellor of Aligarh University, Prof Khusro, would head the Indian team.

The sources said both teams enjoyed the support of their respective prime ministers and were expected to meet them before meeting in Kathmandu. The Pakistani side will include Gen (retd) K. M. Arif, Asma Jehangir, Talat Wazarat of Karachi University and Lt-Gen (retd) Jahangir Karamat. The Indian side will have former minister of state for external affairs Salman Haider, Mani Shankar and a couple of other people.

Mr Naik confirmed to this correspondent that he would lead a delegation for Kathmandu. “I think we can try once again to bring the two countries closer so that they can live in peace and harmony, concentrating more on removing poverty from South Asia,” said Mr Naik, who also once served as Pakistan’s permanent representative at the UN.

This will be the 23rd informal contact between the two sides, the last one having taken place in 2001. Kashmir, Siachen and issues relating to exchange of cultural delegations, trade and easing visa restrictions will be discussed.