Pakistan on Saturday named its ambassador to China, Riaz Mohammed Khan, a career diplomat, as high commissioner to India, ending speculation that journalist-turned-diplomat Maleeha Lodhi could occupy the key slot.

India's ambassador to China, Shivshankar Menon, was appointed high commissioner to Islamabad on May 13.

Khan, known as a hardliner, will take charge of the mission last headed by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who was asked by India to leave the country following the terrorist attack on the families of army personnel in a military camp in Jammu in May last year.

India had withdrawn its high commissioner, Vijay K Nambiar, from Islamabad in January last year in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali announced the appointment of Khan in an interview to World View programme for Doordarshan.

Khan shot into prominence as Pakistan's foreign office spokesman during the critical months following the 9/11 attacks in the US.

He was subsequently inducted into the presidential secretariat by Musharraf and later appointed as ambassador to China.