ISLAMABAD, May 28: Aziz Ahmed Khan, additional secretary (Afghanistan and ECO), was officially and formally named as the new high commissioner of Pakistan to India on Wednesday.

According to a government announcement, the high commissioner-designate has been asked “to make preparations to take up his assignment in the near future”. His likely date of departure could not be ascertained.

Mr Khan, who has been the foreign office spokesman for over a year, is due to retire later this year but is expected to continue in his new post for a normal tenure of about three years.

Indian high commissioner-designate Shiv Shanker Menon is expected to arrive in Islamabad early next month to assume his office.