ISLAMABAD, May 18: A formal announcement, regarding the appointment of Riaz Mohammad Khan as the new high commissioner of Pakistan to India, will be made after Islamabad receives New Delhi’s consent regarding the appointment, sources said on Sunday.

The government, sources said, was awaiting the consent of the Indian government in this regard.

The move will mark the resumption of full diplomatic ties between the two countries after 17-month-long strained relations.

Confusion prevailed on Saturday after Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali reportedly named Riaz Mohammad Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to China, as the new envoy to New Delhi while the foreign ministry had said that a “final decision” in this regard had not been yet made.

Official sources said that confirmation of the appointment could only be formalised after receiving consent from India, adding that it was a “normal” diplomatic practice.

An official of the prime minister’s secretariat said that Mr Jamali had spoken about the appointment in an interview with India’s state-run Doordarshan television on Sunday. But the local state-run media had “broken” the story before the airing of the interview.

Diplomatic sources in Islamabad expressed their surprise over what they termed a “strange coincidence” that both India and Pakistan had nominated their envoys in China to be high commissioners in each other’s capitals ahead of the planned resumption of peace talks between the two countries.