More bloodshed in Pakistan
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Sunday, 13, May 2007 01:40
Four political activists have been killed in Pakistan, a day after street battles between government and opposition supporters left 34 dead.
More than 130 people were injured in yesterday's clashes in Karachi after the country's suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived for an opposition rally.
But he was forced to abandon plans to speak at the event after finding roads in the southern city closed as violence broke out between his and president Pervez Musharraf's supporters.
At a government rally last night in Islamabad, tens of thousands of people heard the president, who is also the country's army chief, rule out a state of emergency being declared, although he promised that elections scheduled for later this year would be held on time.
Mr Chaudhry was suspended two months ago in the face of unspecified misconduct allegations, but Pakistan's top judge denies the implications and has refused to resign.
Calls for his reinstatement have been incorporated into wider opposition movements, culminating in yesterday's violence, which activists blamed on the pro-Musharraf party MQM.
Speaking yesterday, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, secretary general of the supreme court bar association, said: "They've sealed off the entire city.
"It looks they want violence. There's no authority to control MQM activists."
But Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, insisted that the government had instructed the Karachi authorities to maintain law and order during Mr Chaudhry's visit and that "no one will be allowed to disrupt peace".
Mr Chaudhry's ongoing protest against his dismissal is being portrayed by analysts as the most serious challenge yet to the authority of Mr Musharraf.