KARACHI - Pakistan's military voiced concern for the first time on
Monday over ethnic and political violence in the country's financial
capital that has killed 800 people so far this year.
The
military, which has ruled the country for more than half its existence
-- mostly recently from 1999 until the restoration of civilian rule in
2008 -- spoke out after generals met at army headquarters in the city
of Rawalpindi.
"The forum expressed concern over the law and
order situation in Karachi and its ramifications or implications on the
national economy," the military said in a statement after army chief
General Ashfaq Kayani met his top generals.
Parts of the Arabian
Sea port city have become battlegrounds with authorities struggling to
stem the violence, blamed on activists from political parties
representing competing ethnic groups, from spiralling.
The
independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says 800 people, most
of them poor, have died since January, including 300 last month alone.
Interior
Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Karachi that the government had
taken steps to clear out stockpiles of illegal weapons by cancelling
all firearm licences at the end of the month, forcing owners to reapply.
"At
present some licence holders have illegally acquired hundreds of
weapons on a single licence, which will end next month," said Malik.
"From
September anyone caught with a weapon with the old licences will be
dealt with seriously. Such people could be tried in anti-terrorism
courts and get sentences of seven to 14 years," he added.
Malik
said the government's action would bring "a permanent peace" to
Karachi, which has a population of 18 million and accounts for about
one fifth of the country's entire gross domestic product.
Previous government promises to confiscated stockpiles of unlicensed weapons in Karachi have come to nothing.
A tentative calm has held since the government last week deployed hundreds of extra security forces in troubled neighbourhoods.
The military said government measures should "help redress the situation".
Much
of the violence has been blamed on tensions between supporters of the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), rooted in the Urdu-speaking majority,
and the Awami National Party (ANP), which represents ethnic Pashtun
migrants.
The human rights commission says the violence in
Karachi is the deadliest since 1995, when more than 900 killings were
reported in the first half of the year. AFP