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29 March 2024

Pakistan 'not calling in army' over political killings

Paramilitary soldiers patrol the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday. (EPA)

Published
By AFP

Pakistan said on Wednesday there was no need to send the army into Karachi to bring the country's biggest city under control after politically motivated killings left more than 70 people dead in days.

The teeming city of 16 million is the country's economic capital, home to its stock exchange and an Arabian Sea port where Nato supplies dock ready to be trucked overland to support the US-led war effort in Afghanistan.

The city has suffered its most serious bout of political violence in years, with 85 people killed after a lawmaker was shot dead in August and more than 70 since Saturday, the eve of the vote to elect the MP's successor.

The violence, which rival coalition partners blame on each other, has sent shockwaves through the weak central government ahead of strategic talks with the United States and as it battles to contain the fallout of massive floods.

"No decision has been taken to send the army to Karachi," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters in the capital Islamabad.

"I am confident that political leadership will be able to control the situation in Karachi", he added.

A lawmaker of Gilani's main ruling Pakistan People's Party had late Tuesday called for the military to deploy in Karachi, accusing the local government of failing to impose law and order.

"This was his personal opinion," Gilani said.

Calls for military intervention of any kind are deeply sensitive in Pakistan, which has been ruled for more than half its existence by the army and which has been subject to four military coups.

The army is the most powerful institution in Pakistan.

The most recent period of military rule ended with elections in 2008, but the government is struggling in the face of criticism, particularly from local media, alleging it is unable to cope and that heads should roll.

Karachi shut down on Wednesday, with shops and schools closed, and public transport suspended as police and paramilitary troops patrolled troubled neighbourhoods, an AFP reporter said.

The closures came after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents the Urdu-speaking majority, called on citizens to mourn the deaths.

Its coalition partner but chief rival is the Awami National Party (ANP), whose powerbase is rooted in the Pashtun migrants who moved from the northwest, one of the poorest parts of the country and hard hit by Taliban violence.

Both parties blame each other for the violence, fanning tensions within Karachi that reverberate to the capital -- where both factions are also members of the ruling federal coalition -- and threatening the local economy.

"It is a serious situation as it could trigger a conflict among ethnic groups and lead to mass murders," said political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Raees.

"This would have an adverse impact on Pakistan and its economy as Karachi is the country's main financial hub," he added, calling on civilian leaders to unite in order to resolve the unrest.

"Members of the ruling coalition don't seem to be on the same page in dealing with the situation," Raees said.

In the worst single incident, 11 people were killed by masked gunmen riding motorcycles on Tuesday, who sprayed bullets across Shershah Kabari market.

Waqar Mehdi, a special advisor to the Sindh chief minister, said a total of 35 people were killed in different parts of the city on Tuesday, raising to more than 70 the death toll since Saturday.

He said 80 suspects were being interrogated and that a proposal to strip Karachi of weapons was ready to be implemented, although it remains unclear how such a huge task could be achieved.

City police chief Fayyaz Leghari told AFP: "It is right now difficult to name any groups over involvement in the killings but I can say one thing -- this is a conspiracy to destabilise Karachi".

MQM provincial lawmaker Raza Haider was shot dead in Karachi in August, sparking the unrest that went on to claim 85 lives. MQM easily held onto his seat at Sunday's by-election that ANP boycotted.

In September, a founding member of the MQM, Imran Farooq, was also brutally murdered outside his north London home.