KARACHI: At least 43 people were killed in the Pakistani commercial hub of Karachi, after a member of the dominant political party in the city was shot dead, police said on Tuesday.Raza Haider of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was gunned down on Monday along with his bodyguard while attending a funeral, an attack that apparently set off a new round of ethnic and sectarian-related clashes in the city of 18 million.
Following are some facts about the city:
WHO LIVES IN KARACHI?
* Karachi is the capital of Sindh province and has a population of around 18 million.
* Mohajirs, descendants of Urdu-speakers who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, are the biggest community and dominate the city's administration through the MQM.
* Karachi is also home to the largest concentration of ethnic Pashtuns outside Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. According to some estimates, more than 3.5 million Pashtuns live in the city.
* It is home to the central bank and main stock exchange and is also the country's main industrial base.
* The country's two main ports are in Karachi and most foreign companies investing in Pakistan have offices there.
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
* Karachi has a long history of ethnic, religious and sectarian violence. It was a main target of al Qaeda-linked militants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when Pakistan joined the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, and foreigners were attacked in the city several times.
* One of Pakistan's worst bomb attacks was in Karachi in October 2007 during a welcome rally for self-exiled, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. About 140 people were killed.
Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi just over two months later.
* Things have been relatively calm over the past two years as militants have focused on cities in the north and across the northwest. But a bomb at a minority Shi'ite Muslim procession killed 43 people on Dec. 28 and fuelled concern that militants were expanding their fight to the city.
* Officials and media reports say 142 people have been killed up to July.
POLITICS OF KARACHI
* The MQM, which mostly represents Mohajirs, is the dominant political force. In a 2008 general election, it won 17 of 19 National Assembly seats in the city, while the other two went to President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
* The MQM controls the city government. It is also part of a provincial coalition government led by the PPP and is allied with the PPP at the federal level. The PPP dominates in rural areas of Sindh province.
* The MQM has been a strong and vocal critic of the Taliban, and also says that some Pashtuns are involved in crime, such as land grabbing and sheltering militants.
* The Awami National Party is the main Pashtun party in Karachi, and is the MQM's main rival for political posts and spoils. Sometimes these disputes turn violent on the streets.
WHAT IS AT STAKE?
* Karachi is a major transit point for military and other supplies to Afghanistan for the U.S.- and NATO-led anti-insurgency effort. Any trouble there can directly affect those supplies as well as affect industrial activity, seriously impacting the country's economy. According to officials, Karachi contributes 68 percent of the government's total revenue and 25 percent of GDP.
* While stock investors are used to trouble in the northwest, violence in Karachi has a more immediate market impact. AGENCIES