Pakistan had taken the last seven South African wickets for 98 runs in Karachi to bowl the tourists out for 450, but they then collapsed themselves.
Having raced to 71-0 in the 15th over, they slid to 127-5 at stumps, spinner Paul Harris taking 2-18 in 12 overs.
South Africa will aim for a big effort on Wednesday to give themselves the option of enforcing the follow-on.
However, with the pitch only expected to deteriorate more and more, they would probably not be keen on having to bat last.
After a first day dominated by South Africa's batsmen, and in particular Jacques Kallis who reached 118 not out in a score of 294-3, on Tuesday it was the turn of the bowlers to bite back.
Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria became the sixth Pakistan bowler to take 200 Test wickets when removing Kallis and Ashwell Prince in the morning.
Kallis added 37 to his overnight score before edging a back-foot force. For the 25th time in his Test career, he had failed to convert a century into a double ton.
The ultra-patient Prince (36 off 97 balls) then misread Kaneria's googly to send the bowler an easy return catch and Pakistan were back in the game.
Soon after lunch the scorebaord read 392-6 as slow left-armer Abdur Rehman, in a memorable debut, earned a fortunate decision from umpire Mark Benson.
Mark Boucher appeared to make no contact with an attempted sweep, but Pakistan's appeal for a catch at the wicket was upheld.
| | PAKISTAN'S TOP BOWLERS Wasim Akram: 414 wkts Waqar Younis: 373 Imran Khan: 362 Abdul Qadir: 236 Saqlain Mushtaq: 208 Danish Kaneria: 200 |
No doubt encouraged by his maiden Test wicket, Rehman then accounted for numbers 8,9 and 10 cheaply to claim figures of 4-105.
All the while, AB de Villiers was doing his utmost to farm the strike and played some commanding strokes.
But the support was not there and with only Makhaya Ntini for company he eventually fell to Umar Gul for 77.
Pakistan avoided losing any wickets in the early stages of their reply, to be 17-0 at tea.
But it all went horribly wrong in the final session.
First, Kamran Akmal was trapped lbw by Harris, before the next two wickets fell within four deliveries of each other.
Mohammad Hafeez was brilliantly caught by Kallis at slip off Harris, and Andre Nel bowled Younis Khan with a ball that kept low.
| | We still have a tough task ahead of us because the pitch is still good for batting Jacques Kallis |
Inexperienced duo Faisal Iqbal and Misbah-ul-Haq were forced into their shells and it was no surprise that neither lasted until stumps.
Kallis duly bowled Iqbal off the inside edge and Misbah edged an ecstatic Dale Steyn behind.
It ended a great day for the veteran all-rounder, who rated his century in the "top three" of all those he had scored in Tests.
The 31-year-old added: "It's vital to have a good first innings score in a Test in the sub-continent and I think we fell 50 runs short.
"In the end our bowlers came out on top and put us in a strong position but we still have a tough task ahead of us because the pitch is still good for batting."
"Butt had severe pain in his stomach and we took him to the hospital at around 3am," Pakistan team manager Talat Ali told reporters.
Substitute Yasir Hameed replaced the 22-year-old in the field on day two. Butt was unable to bat on Tuesday.
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