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Islamabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government has appointed as new Intelligence Bureau chief Tariq Lodhi, an officer who enjoyed the trust of slain Benazir Bhutto during her 1993-1996 stint in power.
Lodhi, a retired air commodore, has been serving in a senior position at the IB setup in southern Sindh province
He replaces IB Director General Ejaz Shah, whom Bhutto had named, before her assassination, among those she suspected of conspiracy against her after she returned to the country from exile.
The homecoming rally of the former prime minister in Karachi in October last year was targeted by deadly explosions but she survived unhurt. Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack outside her election rally at the Liaquat garden in Rawalpindi near here on December 27.
Making another key appointment, the government has put Shoaib Suddle in charge of the police force in Sindh as inspector general.
Suddle, known to be an upright and honest officer, served in a senior position in the police force in Karachi during the 1993-1996 government of Bhutto.
He was then embroiled in a controversy over the killing of Bhutto's brother Murtaza Bhutto in the port city in September 1996 in police shooting.
According to sources in the police, Suddle is disliked by the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), the second largest political party in Sindh after the PPP.
Suddle will replace Azhar Farooqi, who has been serving as acting head of the police force in the province. His appointment follows bloody incidents in Karachi on Wednesday during which some 10 people, including lawyers, were reportedly killed.
Political parties blamed each other for the disturbances that followed a clash between two groups of lawyers.
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