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NEW DELHI: The appointment of Ejaz Shah as Pakistan’s new interior minister bears the stamp of the Pakistan army and ISI, where he was formerly employed, and was infamous for his close links with terrorist organisations.Former Pakistan IB chief, Shah is hugely controversial. Former PM Benazir Bhutto had accused Shah of plotting to assassinate her days ahead of her killing. Shah is a Musharraf protege. He has often been accused of maintaining close links with Taliban and Al-Qaeda.General Parvez Musharraf had named Brigadier Shah as high commissioner to Australia when he was president, but Canberra refused to accept his nomination on grounds of his links with terror groups, forcing the government to withdraw it.Shah was sworn in as minister for parliamentary affairs on March 29, paving his way for entry into the bigger scheme of things as planned by the Pak army.Shah’s tenure as IB chief from 2004 to 2008 was extremely controversial as he was accused of widespread political victimisation and engineering.Shah was serving as the head of ISI in Pakistan’s Punjab province when Musharraf engineered a coup and imposed martial law in October 1999.Soon after, he was appointed the home secretary of the province and has often been credited with the formation and 2002 electoral success of the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q).The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has been the most vocal critic of Shah’s induction into the federal cabinet. In a recent statement, the party’s information secretary, Nafisa Shah, said it was essential to remind the people of Pakistan that Benazir Bhutto had accused the retired brigadier of planning to assassinate her.“After the current appointment, there is no difference between the federal cabinet of Musharraf and Imran Khan ,” she said, referring to the presence of at least 16 Musharraf loyalists currently in Islamabad’s power corridors.In a statement to the Federal Investigation Agency in 2009, American journalist & lobbyist Mark Siegel testified that Musharraf had warned Bhutto about her safety and security on her return to Pakistan.“Bhutto sent me an email on October 26, 2007, in which she said that if something terrible happened to her, she would hold Musharraf responsible apart from individuals [Shah, ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul , Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Arbab Ghulam Rahim] mentioned in her letter to the former president written on October 16, 2007,” Siegel testified.