Saturday, July 29 2006 11:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Zamir Akram, currently working with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, is expected to be Pakistan's new high commissioner to India.

He will succeed Aziz Ahmad Khan, who will retire next month on completion of his third contractual extended stint in New Delhi.

New Delhi is considered a key posting and has mostly been assigned to career diplomats.

Even as Akram has the prime minister's backing, President Pervez Musharraf will have the final say in the posting in New Delhi, The News said.

The final decision pertaining to the appointment for New Delhi would be announced next week.

Akram has served as Pakistan's ambassador to Nepal before joining the prime minister's secretariat two years ago. He had a number of important diplomatic assignments to his credit before serving Pakistan's mission in Washington twice and once in New Delhi.

Top-level postings are partly decided by 'connections.'

Zamir is the younger brother of Pakistan's permanent envoy at the UN, Muneer Akram.

Akram has for long been listed as the front-runner for the assignment in New Delhi along with Shahid Malik, the current high commissioner in Canada.

Pakistan's Ambassador to Japan Kamran Niaz and Foreign Office senior director-general Syed Jaleel Abbas Jilani are the other two probable but seem to have given up and are looking for some other assignments, sources said.

"Kamran may have to be content with Tokyo for some time more," the sources said.