Thursday, September 21 2006 11:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan may be toying with the idea of fielding Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for the United Nations Secretary General's post as an answer to India's candidate Shashi Tharoor.

However, only stray references to Aziz's candidature have appeared in Pakistan's mainstream media reporting on the current high-profile visit of President Pervez Musharraf to the UN and the US.

The Nation newspaper Thursday quoted Musharraf as telling a news conference in New York that the designation of UN Secretary General has great importance and, if the designation is offered to Aziz, he would consider the offer.

Prime Minister Aziz, a former finance minister who had worked with Citigroup, is known to be very close to Musharraf.

He has been engaged in some diplomatic moves as well, like visiting Turkey and Lebanon immediately after the ceasefire by Israel. At home, he comfortably managed to defeat an opposition no-trust move against his government last month.

Pakistan had initially floated the idea when Tharoor's candidature was announced by New Delhi, but apparently gave up as the race gained momentum, or probably waited for an appropriate time to take the plunge.

Names of journalist-turned-diplomat Maleeha Lodhi and Permanent Representative at the UN Munir Akram had also been bandied about.

Sections of the media had editorially advised the government that it should field a candidate only if it was sure of gaining support from the Islamic world and wider sections of the developing world.

The government was also advised to judiciously choose a Muslim name from one of the other countries to see if a consensus could be built around that name. The name of Afghan politician Hedayat Amin Arsala had figured in that context.

The News had in an editorial a few weeks ago suggested that Tharoor's candidature could be endorsed as a gesture to India and as part of a bargain to give momentum to the bilateral peace process and a push on the Kashmir issue.

Tharoor being an Indian ought not to matter much, as the secretary general is bound by international conventions and could not afford to be seen as favouring his country, the media had suggested.

However, the foreign office in Islamabad chose the conventional route of opposing Tharoor because he is from India.

Diplomatic sources in New Delhi say that Islamabad has been campaigning, especially among the Muslim nations, painting India as an ally of the US in the global war on terror and as such, supportive of the anti-Islam stance.

Tharoor, a late entrant to the race, has so far retained the number two position in the straw polls held at the UN headquarters, while South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon is ahead of all.