UNITED NATIONS, June 14: Pakistan and India will be pitted against each other for the job of the United Nations Secretary-General in July when the Security Council considers candidates for the post, diplomats told Dawn here.

The incumbent, Kofi Annan, is to step down at the end of this year.

India has already started lobbying the permanent members of the Security Council for Shashi Tharoor, who is the UN’s undersecretary-general for the department of information.

Mr Tharoor in interviews earlier had ruled out such a possibility, but recently his statements on the issue became more and more non-committal.

On Tuesday night Mr Tharoor refused to confirm or deny reports of his candidature, suggesting that he was awaiting the crucial nod from the Indian government.

But one diplomat here told Dawn that Mr Tharoor’s nomination by the Indian government was a ‘signed and sealed’ deal.

According to sources, Pakistan, which had never ruled out a possibility of fielding a candidate for the top post at the UN, is considering nominating either Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who has secured considerable clout with the UN member states recently, or the former head of the UN Population Fund, Nafis Sadik, who is presently serving as secretary-general’s special envoy on HIV/Aids, or the present Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram.