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Karachi: The Sindh government has sidelined or transferred more than 40 bureaucrats, including police officials, as key leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) vowed firm action against those trying to destabilise peace in the provincial capital Karachi.
The massive bureaucratic upheaval came as PPP's talks for the formation of a coalition government failed with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) raising concerns that it could create tensions and spark violence in the country's financial hub.
"We have appointed honest, up-right officers," Zulfikar Mirza, provincial interior minister, told a news conference. "We have refused to strike deals and put our government at stake. I have given myself one-month deadline to restore peace in the province," he said.
MQM reservations
The MQM has strong reservations over some of the appointments specially of controversial police officer Shoaib Suddle who has been appointed as Sindh police chief. Suddle has served as Karachi police chief in the mid-1990s and led the crackdown on MQM in which scores of its radical members were shot-dead by security forces in controversial circumstances.
A senior MQM official said on condition of anonymity that his party leaders fear high-handed actions from the PPP-led Sindh government.
"We sincerely hope it is not a replay of 1990s when our innocent workers and supporters were being murdered by the security forces," he said.
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