Opposition supporters chant anti-government slogans during a rally in Karachi yesterday. Eighteen people were killed in Karachi in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists over the arrival of the country's suspended top judge to rally support for his cause. - Reuters

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters):

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday ruled out declaring a state of emergency, hours after 27 people were killed and 100 wounded in clashes in Karachi between pro-government and opposition supporters.

Speculation has swirled in the past few weeks that General Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, might resort to imposing an emergency due to mounting opposition to his attempt to fire the country's top judge.

No emergency

"There is talk that emergency is being imposed ... The people, this crowd of tens of thousands is with me, then where does the need for emergency come? People are with me; there is no emergency," Musharraf told a mass rally in Islamabad.

The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 has outraged the judiciary and the opposition and has blown up into the most serious challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's authority since he seized power in 1999.

In the worst political clashes in Pakistan for years, heavy gunfire erupted in several parts of Karachi as gunmen battled and smoke billowed from more than 100 burning vehicles.

Opposition leaders said the city was under siege by supporters of the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which runs Pakistan's biggest city.

Yesterday was declared a public holiday in Karachi and normal traffic was largely absent from the streets, where thousands of paramilitary troops and police were on patrol.

Many roads, including the one from the airport, were blocked by trucks, buses and shipping containers overnight in an apparent bid to disrupt Chaudhry's visit to the capital of Sindh province.

"It is state-sponsored terrorism. The Sindh government is responsible but we are not going to back off," said Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for the opposition Pakistani People's Party (PPP) of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Provincial government officials had warned of violence in the volatile city and appealed to Chaudhry to postpone his trip. But he arrived on a flight from Islamabad at noon. He spent more than eight hours in the airport VIP lounge, hoping to meet supporters, while authorities urged him to leave the city.

"We had warned them that such a thing could happen but they didn't listen," said Ghulam Mohtaram, provincial government chief secretary.

The provincial government later issued an order for the lawyers accompanying Chaudhry to leave the province and he had decided to return to Islamabad with them, one of his lawyers said.

"The chief justice and we are going back. We're heading towards the plane," the lawyer, Ali Ahmed Kurd, told Reuters by telephone from the airport.

Chaudhry denies wrongdoing and has refused to resign in the face of charges of misconduct. His visit to Karachi was meant to be the latest in a series of protests by the opposition and lawyers to press for his reinstatement.

MQM activists clashed with members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an opposition alliance of religious parties, and the PPP in several parts of Karachi, which has for years been riven by bloody political feuding.

Television showed pictures of men with AK-47 assault rifles firing from behind cars. A man with a neck wound was shown crying in a bus; another wounded man lay gasping in a pool of blood.

Private Aaj Television said its office had come under fire and police said sporadic firing was still going on after dark.

"The death toll has risen to 27 and we have about 100 wounded," said Waseem Akhtar, the top Sindh Interior Ministry official.

Several lawyers beaten

Earlier, several thousand MQM activists surrounded the High Court where Chaudhry had planned to meet Karachi lawyers. They chanted slogans and beat several lawyers trying to get in.

Musharraf, who was due to hold a rally in Islamabad later on Saturday, repeated a call for Chaudhry's case to be settled by the Supreme Court, not on the streets.

The crisis coincides with the run-up to a general election and an anticipated attempt by Musharraf, a United States ally, to secure another term.

Musharraf, who is also army chief, wants to be re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for a general election around the end of the year.

Analysts say his main motive in seeking the removal of the independent-minded Chaudhry is to have a more pliable man in place in case of a constitutional challenge to his plans.