Islamabad, June 3 (Reuters): Scrambling to contain a surge in militant violence, Pakistan’s ruling party today invited the Opposition to share power in a key southern province wracked by bloody attacks in the past month.

The offer came as police blamed the latest sectarian attack in the port city of Karachi on a local group linked to al Qaida. In the far north of the country, meanwhile, a suspected al Qaida militant was killed in an explosion which also wounded three paramilitary members at a checkpoint near the Afghan border, one of the wounded men said. The Pakistani military said the “foreign miscreant” was shot dead by the troops after lobbing a grenade at them. Three armed foreigners disguised in burkas were also detained in the same region along with a Pakistani.

The ruling Pakistani Muslim League made the offer to the Opposition — unprecedented in this administration — to join a “consensus” government in Sindh after a spate of attacks in the provincial capital Karachi that has claimed more than 50 lives. Muslim League head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a six-party Islamic alliance, backed the proposal. But a spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said its leader Benazir Bhutto — forced to remain in exile by the threat of prosecution for corruption by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf — had rejected it.

“The military government has landed itself in a mess. The PPP will not lend its shoulder to bail them out,” spokesman Farhatullah Babar said. After the rebuff from the PPP, the biggest party in Sindh, Hussain will be hoping the MMA can use its influence with Sunni militants blamed for attacking minority Shias to persuade them to curb their activities.

Hussain said the deteriorating situation required the past bitterness to be forgotten. “A government of national consensus should be formed which should be able to restore peace in the province. We should have it with immediate effect,” he said.