Date:11/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/11/stories/2003051106100100.htm

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Maleeha Lodhi's name on the list?

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MAY 10. A day after Pakistan gave the green signal to the proposed appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon as India's top envoy to Islamabad, there is intense speculation that the Jamali Government has finalised its choice for the post of its High Commissioner to India.

The names mentioned include those of the former Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, Inam-ul-Haq, Pakistan's former U.S. Ambassador, Maleeha Lodhi, and the Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan.

Dr. Lodhi, who has won accolades for her two stints in Washington as Pakistan's Ambassador, recently figured in the media as Pakistan's new High Commissioner to Britain. But she is reported to be keen on serving in India. It is quite possible that Pakistan has already sent the relevant papers of its proposed candidate to New Delhi as the Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, left for New York this morning to preside over the United Nation's Security Council special session on May 13.