Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

Unidentified motorcycle riders sprayed people with bullets in Sher Shah market on Tuesday evening, police said.

“The attackers came on motorcycles and started indiscriminate firing, at least 11 people have been killed and several other injured,” Raja Riyasat, a police official told AFP.

The incident comes amid a wave of political violence surrounding a by-election in which around 50 people have now died.

Arif Razzaq, another police official said the death toll may rise as some of the injured were in critical condition.

Doctors in two different hospitals also confirmed the death toll.

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD: A timely intervention by President Asif Ali Zardari, who summoned Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad to Islamabad on Sunday evening after the coordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement decided to withdraw support from the beleaguered government and ask the governor to quit his post. 

Sources in the MQM told Dawn that the meeting between President Zardari and Governor Ibad decided that the authorities would take stern and impartial action against killers of the party’s workers and citizens. 

MQM leader Mustafa Azizabadi said the governor had taken back his resignation on the assurances given by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and President Zardari. 

He said Mr Malik would visit the MQM headquarters in Karachi on Monday. 

“We will carefully watch every action the government takes to curb terrorism and eliminate the land and drug mafia,” another MQM leader said. 

“The decision (to quit the coalition and the office of the Sindh governor) has been taken… if the promises are not fulfilled then we will part ways with the PPP government at any time.” 

KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have agreed to stop their leaders and workers from issuing provocative statements against each other. 

The decision was taken at a meeting between leaders of the two parties convened and chaired by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad here on Friday evening. 

According to sources, the meeting was called to pacify the situation which had developed after the two parties started leveling allegations against each other. The MQM had accused the provincial home minister of patronising elements involved in the Lyari gang war while the PPP alleged that it also had proofs against some MQM leaders. 

Senior Sindh Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq, Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza, Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and Najme Alam represented the PPP. The MQM team comprised Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar, Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmad, Information Technology Minister Raza Haroon and Public Health Engineering Minister Adil Siddiqui. 

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that ‘international powers’ had in the past tried to eliminate the MQM through the Pakistani establishment, but now they were trying to get rid of him. 
In an open letter to party workers, which was also released to the media on Sunday, Mr Hussain said that ‘international powers’ could eliminate him anytime and they (MQM workers) should be mentally prepared for such an eventuality.

He said that he had given a philosophy and ideology for struggle against generals, feudal lords and chieftains who assumed “power through unfair means”.

He said it was not only the aristocracy which benefited from the mediaeval system, but international powers also used it to their advantage.