Party pressures govt on Karachi violence

MQM steps up pressure on the government to protect its workers against violence.


October 19, 2010

KARACHI: Pakistan’s dominant political force in Karachi has stepped up pressure on the government to protect its workers after violence again raised fears of instability in the country’s commercial capital.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) threatened to pull out of the coalition government of President Zardari after at least 33 people were killed in weekend attacks that coincided with a by-election to replace a MQM lawmaker murdered in August.

That could lead to the central government losing its majority in the National Assembly, or its downfall if the MQM allied itself with the opposition. The government already faces an array of problems, including a possible showdown with the judiciary, a Taliban insurgency and the task of rebuilding after summer floods that made more than 10 million homeless and are likely to strain the economy for years.

The MQM has made similar threats before but the latest bloodshed has increased the chances of that happening, party sources say. Several party workers were killed, the MQM said.

“We are under immense pressure from our workers and voters to take some action,” said a senior MQM leader. “We cannot tolerate the continued killings of our workers and are increasingly unable to justify our presence in a government which has failed to protect us.”

Sindh Police Surgeon Hamid Parhiar said the latest deaths were being treated as politically linked  targeted killings. “At least 31 deaths have been recorded in targeted killings in different hospitals of the city so far,” Parhiar told AFP. “They had bullet wounds and appeared to be ordinary people from the lower middle class.”

Chief of police Fayyaz Leghari put the death toll at 30  and said that at least 40 people were injured, adding that 60 arrests had been made in connection with the violence.

Witnesses said that shops, markets and offices in the city were open on  Monday but the atmosphere was tense. Karachi is plagued by ethnic and sectarian killings, crime and  kidnappings.

A founding member of the MQM, Imran Farooq, who was living in exile in  Britain, was brutally murdered outside his north London home in September. The government has not released exact figures, but rights groups say more  than 260 targeted killings were reported in Karachi during the first six months  of this year, compared with 156 during the same period in 2009.

A combustible mix of political and ethnic rivalries, sometimes linked to criminal gangs, and militancy makes Karachi prone to violence.

Stock market investors keep a wary eye on tension in Karachi, home to Pakistan’s main port, stock exchange and central bank and the main gateway for Western military supplies bound for neighbouring landlocked Afghanistan.

The MQM blamed its rival ethnic Pashtun-based Awami National Party (ANP) for the weekend killings, an allegation it denied.

It has repeatedly said that the provincial government, dominated by Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party, had failed to stop the violence in the sprawling city of 18 million people.

Unofficial results showed the MQM sweeping Sunday’s election for a provincial seat to replace lawmaker Raza Haider, whose shooting triggered violence which killed 100 people in a week.

The MQM’s Ishrat-ul Ebad, governor of the Sindh province, met Zardari late on Sunday night to offer his resignation but kept the decision “on hold” after getting assurances the government will move swiftly to control violence, said a party official.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2010.

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