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Benazir seeks

6-month truce for

Karachi polls

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said on Tuesday that her government would hold local elections in Karachi if the opposition Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) observed a six-month ceasefire.

She told foreign journalists in Islamabad that a power-sharing formula with the MQM could be implemented if another six months of peace followed the local polls.

"If they have a six-month ceasefire, we are willing to discuss with them," Bhutto said.

"Local bodies (election) timetable is the first step," she said. "Then a second ceasefire for another six months from the time of the local bodies (election) and so on.

"Then a power-sharing formula between them and us and then another six months of peace."

Local elected bodies in Karachi were dissolved in 1992 and replaced by government-appointed administrators.

Benazir said the government wanted to convince the MQM, which she referred to as the Altaf Group after its leader, that it could make gains only through political means, not by violence.

"We want a political solution with the Altaf Group," she said. "They are Pakistanis. They are part of us. We are part of them. If some have gone on the wrong path, we want to bring them back to the right path, and we want to give them the incentives to bring them back to the right path."

The MQM says it is fighting for the rights of Karachi's majority Mohajir community, originating from Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan after Partition in 1947.

Benazir's remarks appeared to signal a change of tone from a speech she made in July, in which she described the "terrorist wing" of the MQM as "cowardly rats" who do not breathe the same air or have the same blood as other Pakistanis.

"Karachi is our port city. We feel that members of the Altaf Group can play a role in that port city," she said on Tuesday.

"We are prepared to go the extra mile for them if they are prepared to demonstrate their sincerity in helping end violence in Karachi," the prime minister declared.

Benazir's government blames the MQM for much of the violence that has turned Karachi into one of Asia's most perilous cities. The MQM accuses security organs of orchestrating the bloodshed.

Benazir said she did not think the government's dialogue with the MQM would bring instant agreement.

"Our main objective is to convince the Altaf Group to give up the politics of violence, to convince the Altaf Group that whatever they wish to gain, they can gain through dialogue and not through multi-barrelled rocket launchers and grenade launchers and massacres..."

Benazir said her government had shown patience in not calling off the talks with the MQM, who she blamed for Saturday's killings of eight labourers in Karachi's Moosa Colony area.

The MQM has denied responsibility for the attack.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Benazir said she would tackle the issue of violence against women in her speech at the forthcoming United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing.

"A lot has changed for women, but seen in the overall context, it is too little and a lot still needs to be done," she said.

Benazir confirmed she would attend the September 4-15 conference and planned to focus on female infanticide.

"It's tragic to see that female infanticide is still a very big problem and many people do not want baby girls," she said.

"This places a tremendous burden and responsibility on women. We have to take the steps that are necessary to give them a sense of worth and ... give women and men confidence that having a female child is welcome as long as that child is healthy," she said.

Benazir, 42, is married and has one son and two daughters.

"When the man is against the female child, the irony is that it is also the woman who becomes against the female child because the wife feels that she has failed in some way in giving birth to a female child," she said.

"So we have to create the right psychological atmosphere to change what is wrong and unjust and patently a crime against women," she said.

She said she would also draw the attention of Beijing delegates to violence against women in the home and in wartime.

"Whether it is Kashmir or Bosnia, whenever there is a war scene, women find themselves targetted," she said. "This shows really a deep-rooted prejudice against women."-Reuter