Fixing Karachi will require Sharif to garner the support of MQM, PPP, and ANP -- none of whom at this point look poised to join his government.

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The coroner said it was known there were problems with the ANP and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Walker, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, had described them as "rotten to the core".

BBC: Afghan shooting: Soldiers were 'unlawfully killed'

"The Afghan National Police (ANP) is ill-equipped for this role, and has been targeted by the Taliban, with 1, 200 killed in 2007 and a similar toll expected in 2008, " the group added.

CNN: Report: Afghan police should focus on crime, not militants

The ANP boycotted the by-election.

BBC: Karachi mayhem continues with 10 more dead

The information secretary for the ANP said Sindh Fazl Ul-Urrah Man Kakakhel, the group's vice president, was killed and his supporters have taken to the streets in protest.

CNN: Pakistani army 'copter crash kills 8

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad says that security fears faced by the MQM and other relatively liberal parties including President Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) are overshadowing the run-up to the vote.

BBC: Pakistan's MQM party shuts Karachi offices after attack

Most election violence in Pakistan takes place in the north-west of the country and secular parties such as the ANP, in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the ruling PPP have borne the brunt of such attacks.

BBC: Pakistan's Musharraf barred from May polls