Karachi Seen as Key to Pakistan's Future, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 18 January 2010
EXCERPT: "An uneasy peace is gradually returning to Karachi, Pakistan's southern commercial and political hub, after weeks of tensions prompted by the deadly December 28 bombing of a Shi'ite religious procession and a subsequent spree of 'target killings' that left at least 35 rival political activists dead. This week, President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistani Peoples Party (P.P.P.) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (M.Q.M.) ostensibly mended fences after weeks of public bickering which threatened their nearly two-year-old coalition government in the southern province of Sindh, where Karachi is the capital. Home to up to 18 million people, Karachi is one of the largest cities in the Muslim world, and its two commercial ports on the Arabian Sea, banks, and stock market constitute the lifeline of the Pakistani economy. Providing nearly 70 percent of the government's revenue, Karachi accounts for a quarter of Pakistan's GDP. Political agitation, ethnic riots, and military operations to quell them in Karachi during the 1980s and 1990s always resulted in undermining Pakistan's economic prosperity and political stability. Maintaining order in Karachi is now considered essential for this South Asian nation's survival as Pakistan struggles with domestic extremist insurgencies and remains a key battleground for the West's war against Al-Qaeda and affiliated extremist networks. Karachi is also the main transit route for U.S. and NATO supplies for neighboring Afghanistan."
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Related articles:
Violence in Pakistan's Karachi raises political tension, Reuters India, 10 January 2010
Pakistan's Karachi shuts to protest violence, Reuters, 1 January 2010
Pakistan: Karachi's invisible enemy, Frontline // PBS and The New York Times, 17 July 2009
Related media:
A militant hideaway, The New York Times, 17 July 2009
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