LAHORE, Nov 7: Former Punjab IGP Rao Abdul Rashid died of a cardiac arrest here on Wednesday. He was 81. He was laid to rest in the Defence Housing Authority graveyard in the presence of scores of retired and serving police officials, bureaucrats and politicians. A police contingent also presented him guard of honour.

Qul will be held at 3pm at T-block mosque of DHA today (Thursday).

Born on Nov 11, 1926, in Klanaur (India), Mr Rashid graduated in economics from Aligarh University. After partition, his family settled in Sahiwal where he also joined the Government College as lecturer. Later, he passed the CSS examination and opted for the police services.

He was the director of Intelligence Bureau and later Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came into power and appointed him IGP.

Finance minister in Bhutto’s cabinet Dr Mubashar Hasan says Mr Rashid worked with him in unearthing various rackets involved in arms smuggling, illegal custody of foreign exchange, and tax evasion and did not like his transfer.

He was returned to the IB as director-general and was assigned duties related to conduct of 1977 polls. He also remained adviser to the prime minister on security affairs.

When Gen Ziaul Haq staged a coup against Bhutto, he attempted to make Rao Rashid approver against the deposed prime minister. On refusal, he was arrested and dismissed from service.

He was made adviser to prime minister Benazir Bhutto on establishment and a member of the PPP central working committee when she returned to power in 1988. However, he developed differences with some of her policies and resigned to join Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s PPP-SB party as secretary-general.

His romance with the PPP-SB did not last long as after Murtaza’s death, he had disagreement with Ghinwa Bhutto on nuclear issue and joined the Tehrik-i-Insaaf as its secretary-general. Later, he also abandoned this party too and started writing his memoirs.

One of his works was ‘Jo Mein Ney Dekha’ which remained banned for years in Pakistan.