All-conquering Pakistan PM takes on Karachi crime
By Andrew Hill

KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov 22 (Reuters) - In 12 rollercoaster months, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has seen off one president, one chief justice and the chief of the armed forces to emerge as the most powerful premier for decades.

But on a hot and windy afternoon last Friday he announced he would now take on the vast city of Karachi, a melting pot that has been stirred by political and ethnic rivalry into a cauldron of violence in which thousands of people have died.

Sharif announced that he would resort to military courts to staunch almost daily bloodshed that has killed close to 800 people this year alone and earned Pakistan's commercial capital the title ``City of Death.''

It was, political analysts said, a sign of exasperation from a man whose patience with a ponderous legal system was at an end and whose efforts to cajole the dominant political parties in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, were over.

``Undoubtedly it is a major plunge carrying great hazards and political cost....'' the English-language Nation said on Saturday.

``The intention is to sort out things once and for all in Karachi, which has been plagued by unprecedented violence, shaking the very foundations of the country and affecting its economic activities,'' it said.

Sharif's opponents seized on the news as proof of Sharif's determination to become a virtual dictator after forcing the resignation of a critical President Farooq Leghari, Chief Justice Sajaad Ali and armed forces chief Jahangir Karamat in one year.

``The handing over of parts of Sindh to the military, the setting up of special military courts and the suspension of the writ of superior judiciary marks the complete erosion of civil authority and constitutional rule in the Federation,'' said opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who is from Sindh.

Bhutto, of the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP), said it was ``proof that events are out of the control of the present regime. The present regime must therefore quit and pave the way for fresh elections under an interim government of national consensus.''

But there is as much chance of Sharif stepping down as there is of the gunmen in Karachi handing in the Kalashnikov assault rifles and other arms which killed 2,000 people in 1995, 500 in 1996, 380 in 1997 and more than 780 so far this year.

Karachi's violence has its roots in a struggle for domination of the country's key city -- it accounts for 40 percent of government revenue -- that has been unresolved since Britain partitioned colonial India into India and Pakistan in 1947.

That was the spur for a migration of Urdu-speaking ethnic Mohajir migrants from India, who came seeking jobs and safety in the capital of newly-independent Pakistan before Islamabad was declared the seat of power in the 1960s.

Their political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) became the umbrella for a population trying to fend off an invasion of other ethnic groups from Pakistan's other provinces -- impoverished Balochistan, powerful Punjab and the hardy, conservative Pathans of Northwest Frontier Province.

Jammed into a nightmare conurbation originally built for a couple of million of Sindhis and Balochs last century, the Karachi cauldron of now 12 million has repeatedly boiled over, stirred by the rivalry of politicians, gangsters and ethnic groups alike.

Guns became easily available when Pakistan became the conduit for U.S. weapon supplies to rebels in Afghanistan fighting Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

They were turned, instead, on the inhabitants of a place the guide books call ``The city of lights'' in an unending cycle of violence that became such a daily event that state media only briefly logged the daily death toll.

Sharif's crackdown took effect on Saturday with the arrest of five MQM members and the seizure of arms and ammunition in a raid on their headquarters.

The MQM split into a militant MQM-Haqiqi wing in the early 1990s and a mainstream faction headed by Altaf Hussein, who fled into exile in London, where he remains.

Many Pakistanis believe MQM-Haqiqi was a creation of the Pakistani military. Whatever its origins, the war for turf and influence was a key reason for the daily appearance of bullet riddled bodies on mortuary slabs across the city.

To the surprise of many, and the dismay of MQM-Haqiqi, which controls many districts, mainstream MQM entered an alliance with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League after 1996 elections, a liason which ended in bloodshed last month.

MQM left a coalition with Sharif in the provincial assembly after Sharif accused it of involvement in the daylight murder of Said Hakim a former governor of the province and a respected moderate and pioneer of widely-used natural medicines.

It was a landmark killing. The Karachi rumour mill said Hakim refused to pay millions of rupees in protection money, and paid instead with his life.

Within days Sharif put Karachi under the rule of central government. Three weeks later he said military courts would clean up terrorists.

Newsline, a Karachi-based fortnightly magazine which has been sharply critical of Sharif's growing powers, said: ``As they say, better late than never.''

``The government seems to be blind to the fact that Karachi, the economic lifeline of Pakistan, is in the throes of death. It continues to move players in and out of the scene. There is no long-term plan of action, no sane, selfless corps of people to take charge put Karachi back on track.

``Time is fast running out - and if the centre does not get its act together this time round, the city of lights may be doomed to darkness for ever.''