Pakistan is expected to be represented by a former General when Pakistan and India hold the next national security adviser-level talks, officials here said.

Officials said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to appoint Lt. General Nasser Khan Janjua as the NSA to replace Sartaj Aziz, who has until now been serving as the NSA and the PM’s advisor on foreign affairs. “Sartaj Aziz will continue to look after the foreign ministry and General Janjua will take up the NSA role,” a government official said.

General Janjua — who retired this week — had a meeting with Mr Sharif on October 14, during which his role in the stabilisation of Balochistan, as the former commander of the Southern Command, was highly commended.

The official said General Janjua’s name had been seconded by Army Chief Raheel Sharif who thought Mr Aziz’s attention was divided due to two charges.

“The Army Chief supported his appointment, but the decision has been taken by the PM himself. There was no inference from the military,” he added.

Mr Sharif had swept into office in 2013 vowing to improve Pakistan’s relations with India.

General Janjua’s appointment comes amid cooling relations between Pakistan and India, who were due to hold talks in August that were cancelled after India said it wanted to limit the scope of the talks to terrorism and Pakistan insisted on more wide-ranging discussions.

Officials said that, after formally taking over the charge, General Janjua will visit Afghanistan and the United States. One official said General Janjua will hold talks with India as the NSA when the two countries decide to sit together again.

Before the Balochistan assignment, General Janjua was president of the National Defence University, the military’s higher education institute and premier think-tank on national security matters.

He also worked on “Azm-e-Nau,” a military preparedness exercise that had a particular focus on India.