Shiv Shankar Menon was appointed on Tuesday as the high commissioner to Pakistan.

Menon, who is currently India's ambassador to China, will go to Pakistan nearly 17 months after New Delhi recalled its earlier envoy Vijay Nambiar after the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.

A Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said 54-year-old Menon is expected to take up his assignment shortly.

Official sources said Menon may take anywhere between four to six weeks to take charge of his new assignment.

A seasoned diplomat, Menon has besides China, also served in Israel, Sri Lanka and Japan. He has also had a stint in the Department of Atomic Energy.

He will follow in the footsteps of Nambiar who moved from Beijing to Islamabad as India's envoy. Nambiar has since taken over as India's Permanent Representative at the United Nations.

Menon's appointment is being seen as a 'major political gesture' and comes within days of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's announcement in Parliament that a high commissioner will be appointed.

New Delhi had quickly sent in Menon's name for acceptance by Islamabad, which lost no time in doing so.

Pakistan, however, is yet to send in the name of its high commissioner to India.

The names doing the rounds in Pakistani media for the key slot in Delhi is that of Maleeha Lodhi, formerly editor of a Pakistani daily and last served as ambassador to the US, former minister of state for foreign affairs Inamul Haq and foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan.