KARACHI: Violence between ethnic groups and criminal gangs killed at least 51 people in 24 hours  Pakistan’s financial capital of Karachi as the government again struggled for solutions to the unrest.

A former MP for the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Waja Karimdad, was among those killed in the fresh wave of violence in Karachi, where hundreds of additional police and paramilitary troops were deployed last month.

Spiralling unrest is a major source of concern in Pakistan’s biggest city, which is used by Nato to ship the bulk of its supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan and which accounts for around a fifth of the country’s GDP.

Independent economist A.B. Shahid estimated that 20 per cent of the city’s business was shut down Thursday with markets closed in southern neighbourhoods to protest against extortion money demanded by criminal gangs.