NEW DELHI, May 13: India on Tuesday named Shiv Shanker Menon as its new high commissioner to Pakistan.

Mr Menon, currently New Delhi’s envoy in Beijing, was handpicked by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then officially approved by Pakistan on Saturday.

He is expected to take charge in about four weeks at the post vacated 17 months ago by Vijay K. Nambiar, currently India’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, who was withdrawn following the Dec 13 attack on parliament in 2001.

Mr Menon “handled” Pakistan as undersecretary when he joined the foreign service in 1972.