Gunbattles ahead of rival political rallies left 27 people dead in Karachi on Saturday in the worst violence since President Pervez Musharraf suspended the chief justice two months ago.
President Musharraf ruled out declaring a state of emergency despite the bloodshed in Karachi, state media reported, where Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad was due to address supporters.
Black smoke billowed over the volatile commercial hub, witnesses said, as mobs armed with assault rifles and shotguns opened fire on Aaj Television studio and torched four buses and dozens of other vehicles.
"There are 27 people dead in the violence. The number could go up. The
majority of those killed are workers of opposition parties, mainly the Pakistan
People's Party," the official said on condition of anonymity.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said President Musharraf's government and its allies had apparently "deliberately sought to foment violence in Karachi", adding that police stood by as "silent spectators".
Security officials said 15 of the victims, who include a policeman and a paramedic, died during clashes between opposition parties supporting the chief justice and pro-Musharraf activists in several parts of the city.
An AFP photographer at the scene of the biggest clash said workers from the pro-Musharraf Muttahida Qaumi Movement exchanged gunfire for an hour with activists from exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.
Earlier, gunmen on motorbikes shot dead two activists from the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif as they put up posters welcoming Justice Chaudhry. Separately, a member of an opposition party was fatally shot.
Aaj television, which has come under pressure from the government for its allegedly pro-chief justice stance, showed footage of gunmen firing at its office in Karachi and of its correspondents diving for cover.
Justice Chaudhry remained stranded at Karachi airport after flying in on Saturday morning, because government supporters had used trucks with deflated tyres to shut down all main roads, including those leading to the airport.
Governor Ibad said that Justice Chaudhry's team of lawyers had now been ordered to leave Karachi and urged that he too should "consider the grim situation of the city and take a decision."
Paramilitary troops at the airport tried to force him into a helicopter and fly him to the high court "but we did not let the security people take him forcibly," said Munir Malik, one of his lawyers.
Gunmen fired at Malik's house earlier in the week.
The MQM, held a large counter-demonstration in Karachi to rival Justice Chaudhry's.
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