ABOUT KARACHI

Karachi (/kəˈrɑːtʃi/; Urdu: کراچی [kə.ɾɑː.t͡ʃiː]; Sindhi: ڪراچي‎; IPA: [kəˈraːtʃi] ^ⓘ) is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world, with a population of over 20 million.^[12][18] It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast and formerly served as the country’s capital from 1947 to 1959. Ranked as a beta-global city,^[19][20] it is Pakistan’s premier industrial and financial centre,^[21] with an estimated GDP of over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021.^[16][17] Karachi is a metropolitan city and is considered Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city, and among the country’s most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse regions,^[22] as well as one of the country’s most progressive and socially liberal cities.^[23][24]

The region has been inhabited for millennia,^[25] but the city was formally founded as the fortified village of Kolachi as recently as 1729.^[26][27] The settlement greatly increased in importance with the arrival of the East India Company in the mid-19th century. British administrators embarked on substantial projects to transform the city into a major seaport, and connect it with the extensive railway network of the Indian subcontinent.^[27] At the time of Pakistan’s independence in 1947, the city was the largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000 people.^[22] Afterwards, the city experienced a dramatic shift in population and demography with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from India,^[28] coupled with an exodus of most of its Hindu residents.^[29] The city experienced rapid economic growth following Pakistan’s independence, attracting migrants from throughout the country and other regions in South Asia.^[30] According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan, Karachi’s total population was 20.3 million.^[31] Karachi is one of the world’s fastest-growing cities,^[32] and has significant communities representing almost every ethnic group in Pakistan. Karachi holds more than two million Bengali immigrants, a million Afghan refugees, and up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar.^[33][34][35]

Karachi is now Pakistan’s premier industrial and financial centre. The city has a formal economy estimated to be worth $190 billion as of 2021, which is the largest in the country.^[36][37] Karachi collects 35% of Pakistan’s tax revenue,^[38] and generates approximately 25% of Pakistan’s entire GDP.^[39][40] Approximately 30% of Pakistani industrial output is from Karachi,^[41] while Karachi’s ports handle approximately 95% of Pakistan’s foreign trade.^[42] Approximately 90% of the multinational corporations and 100% of the banks operating in Pakistan are headquartered in Karachi.^[42] It also serves as a transport hub, and contains Pakistan’s two largest seaports, the Port of Karachi and Port Qasim, as well as Pakistan’s busiest airport, Jinnah International Airport.^[43] Karachi is also considered to be Pakistan’s fashion capital,^[44][45] and has hosted the annual Karachi Fashion Week since 2009.^[46][47]

Known as the “City of Lights” in the 1960s and 1970s for its vibrant nightlife,^[48] Karachi was beset by sharp ethnic, sectarian, and political conflict in the 1980s with the large-scale arrival of weaponry during the Soviet–Afghan War.^[49] The city had become well known for its high rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes sharply decreased following a crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM political party, and Islamist militants, initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers.^[50] As a result of the operation, Karachi dropped from being ranked the world’s 6th-most dangerous city for crime in 2014, to 128th by 2022.^[51]

Modern Karachi was reputedly founded in 1729 as the settlement of Kolachi-jo-Goth during the rule of Kalhora dynasty.^[26] The new settlement is said to have been named in honour of Mai Kolachi, whose son is said to have slain a man-eating crocodile in the village after his elder brothers had already been killed by it.^[26] The name Karachee, a shortened and corrupted version of the original name Kolachi-jo-Goth, was used for the first time in a Dutch report from 1742 about a shipwreck near the settlement.^[52][53]

History

The region around Karachi has been the site of human habitation for millennia. Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites have been excavated in the Mulri Hills along Karachi’s northern outskirts. These earliest inhabitants are believed to have been hunter-gatherers, with ancient flint tools discovered at several sites.

The expansive Karachi region is believed to have been known to the ancient Greeks, and may have been the site of Barbarikon, an ancient seaport which was located at the nearby mouth of the Indus River.^{[54][55][56][57]} Karachi may also have been referred to as Ramya in ancient Greek texts.^[58]

The ancient site of Krokola, a natural harbour west of the Indus where Alexander the Great sailed his fleet for Achaemenid Assyria, may have been located near the mouth of Karachi’s Malir River,^[59][60][61] though some believe it was located near Gizri.^[62][63] No other natural harbour exists near the mouth of the Indus that could accommodate a large fleet.^[64] Nearchus, who commanded Alexander’s naval fleet, also mentioned a hilly island by the name of Morontobara and an adjacent flat island named Bibakta, which colonial historians identified as Karachi’s Manora Point and Kiamari (or Clifton), respectively, based on Greek descriptions.^[65][66][67] Both areas were island until well into the colonial era, when silting in led to them being connected to the mainland.^[68]

In 711 CE, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh and Indus Valley and the port of Debal, from where he launched his forces further into the Indus Valley in 712.^[69] Some have identified the port with Karachi, though some argue the location was somewhere between Karachi and the nearby city of Thatta.^[70][71]

Under Mirza Ghazi Beg, the Mughal administrator of Sindh, the development of coastal Sindh and the Indus River Delta was encouraged. Under his rule, fortifications in the region acted as a bulwark against Portuguese incursions into Sindh. In 1553–54, Ottoman admiral Seydi Ali Reis, mentioned a small port along the Sindh coast by the name of Kaurashi which may have been Karachi.^[72][73][74] The Chaukhandi tombs in Karachi’s modern suburbs were built around this time between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Glimpse of I. I. Chundrigar Road, as captured from the southern vantage point overlooking Chinna Creek.

The city first developed around the Karachi Harbour, and owes much of its growth to its role as a seaport at the end of the 18th century,^[135] contrasted with Pakistan’s millennia-old cities such as Lahore, Multan, and Peshawar. Karachi’s Mithadar neighbourhood represents the extent of Kolachi prior to British rule.

British Karachi was divided between the “New Town” and the “Old Town”, with British investments focused primarily on the New Town.^[92] The Old Town was a largely unplanned neighbourhood which housed most of the city’s indigenous residents and had no access to sewerage systems, electricity, and water.^[92] The New Town was subdivided into residential, commercial, and military areas.^[92] Given the strategic value of the city, the British developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison in the New Town to aid the British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.^[92] The city’s development was largely confined to the area north of the Chinna Creek prior to independence, although the seaside area of Clifton was also developed as a posh locale under the British, and its large bungalows and estates remain some of the city’s most desirable properties. The aforementioned historic areas form the oldest portions of Karachi, and contain its most important monuments and government buildings, with the I. I. Chundrigar Road being home to most of Pakistan’s banks, including the Habib Bank Plaza which was Pakistan’s tallest building from 1963 until the early 2000s.^[2] Situated on a coastal plain northwest of Karachi’s historic core lies the sprawling district of Orangi. North of the historic core is the largely middle-class district of Nazimabad, and upper-middle-class North Nazimabad, which were developed in the 1950s. To the east of the historic core is the area known as Defence, an expansive upscale suburb developed and administered by the Pakistan Army. Karachi’s coastal plains along the Arabian Sea south of Clifton were also developed much later as part of the greater Defence Housing Authority project. Karachi’s city limits also include several islands, including Baba and Bhit Islands, Oyster Rocks, and Manora, a former island which is now connected to the mainland by a thin 12-kilometre long shoal known as Sandspit.^[122] Gulistan-e-Johar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Federal B. Area, Malir, Landhi and Korangi areas were all developed after 1970. The city has been described as one divided into sections for those able to afford to live in planned localities with access to urban amenities, and those who live in unplanned communities with inadequate access to such services.^[136] 35% of Karachi’s residents live in unplanned communities.^[136]

Karachi is dominated by the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs.^[178] It is the most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse city in Pakistan.^[22] The city is a melting pot of ethnolinguistic groups from throughout Pakistan, as well as migrants from other parts of Asia. The 2017 census numerated Karachi’s population to be 14,910,352, having grown 2.49% per year since the 1998 census, which had listed Karachi’s population at approximately 9.3 million.^[179] The city’s inhabitants are referred to by the demonym Karachiite in English, and Karāchīwālā in Urdu.

Karachi has the largest number of Urdu speakers in Pakistan.^[153][180] As per the 2023 census, the linguistic breakdown of Karachi Division is:

The category of “others” includes 653,727 Hindko speakers, 75,993 Brahui speakers, 50,982 Kashmiri speakers, 30,375 Mewati speakers, 26,906 Balti speakers, 14,073 Kohistani speakers, 21,860 Shina speakers, 614 Kalasha speakers, and 943,165 speakers of other languages^[185] such as Kutchi,^[186]Gujarati, Memoni, Burushaski, Marwari, Dari, Makrani, Khowar, Hazaragi, Bengali, Konkani and others.^[187]

The oldest portions of modern Karachi reflect the ethnic composition of the first settlement, with Balochis and Sindhis continuing to make up a large portion of the Lyari neighbourhood, though many of the residents are relatively recent migrants.^{[citation needed]} Following Partition, large numbers of Hindus left Pakistan for the newly independent Dominion of India (later the Republic of India), while a larger percentage of Muslim migrant and refugees from India settled in Karachi. The city grew 150% during the ten year period between 1941 and 1951 with the new arrivals from India,^[201] who made up 57% of Karachi’s population in 1951.^[202] The city is now considered a melting pot of Pakistan and is the country’s most diverse city.^[2]

In 2011, an estimated 2.5 million foreign migrants lived in the city, mostly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.^[203]

Much of Karachi’s citizenry descend from Urdu-speaking migrants and refugees from North India who became known by the Arabic term for “Migrant”: Muhajir. The first Muhajirs of Karachi arrived in 1946 in the aftermath of the Direct Action Day and subsequent 1946 Bihar riots.^[204] The city’s wealthy Hindus opposed the resettlement of refugees near their homes, and so many refugees were accommodated in the older and more congested parts of Karachi.^[205] The city witnessed a large influx of Muhajirs following partition, who were drawn to the port city and newly designated federal capital for its white-collar job opportunities.^[206] Muhajirs continued to migrate to Pakistan throughout the 1950s and early 1960s,^[207] with Karachi remaining the primary destination of Indian Muslim migrants throughout those decades.^[207] The Muhajir Urdu-speaking community in the 2017 census forms slightly less than 45% of the city’s population.^[192] Muhajirs form the bulk of Karachi’s middle class.^{[2][failed verification]}

Karachi is home to a wide array of non-Urdu speaking Muslim peoples from what is now the Republic of India. The city has a sizable community of Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani-speaking refugees.^{[2][failed verification]} Karachi is also home to a several-thousand member strong community of Malabari Muslims from Kerala in South India.^[208] These ethno-linguistic groups are being assimilated in the Urdu-speaking community.^[209]

During the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s, large numbers Pashtuns from the NWFP migrated to Karachi with Afghan Pashtun refugees settling in Karachi during the 80’s.^{[210][211][212][213][214]} Karachi is home to the world’s largest urban Pashtun population,^[215] with more Pashtun citizens than the Peshawar.^{[2][failed verification][215]} Pashtuns from Afghanistan are regarded as the most conservative community.^{[2][failed verification]} Pashtuns from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, in contrast, are generally seen as more liberal in social outlook.^{[2][failed verification]} The Pashtun community forms the bulk of manual labourers and transporters.^[216] Anatol Lieven of Georgetown University in Qatar wrote that due to Pashtuns settling the city, “Karachi (not Kabul, Kandahar or Peshawar) is the largest Pashtun city in the world.”^[217]

Migrants from Punjab began settling in Karachi in large numbers in the 1960s, and now make up an estimated 14% of Karachi’s population.^{[2][failed verification]} The community forms the bulk of the city’s police force.^{[2][failed verification]} The bulk of Karachi’s Christian community, which makes up 2.5% of the city’s population, is Punjabi.^[218]

Despite being the capital of Sindh province, only 6–8% of the city is Sindhi.^{[2][failed verification]} Sindhis form much of the municipal and provincial bureaucracy.^{[2][failed verification]} 4% of Karachi’s population speaks Balochi as its mother tongue, though most Baloch speakers are of Sheedi heritage – a community that traces its roots to Africa.^{[2][failed verification]}

Following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and independence of Bangladesh, thousands of Urdu-speaking Biharis arrived in the city, preferring to remain Pakistani rather than live in the newly independent country. Large numbers of Bengalis also migrated from Bangladesh to Karachi during periods of economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Karachi is now home to an estimated 2.5 to 3 million ethnic Bengalis living in Pakistan.^[33][34] Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, who speak a dialect of Bengali and are sometimes regarded as Bengalis, also live in the city. Karachi is home to an estimated 400,000 Rohingya residents.^[219][220] Large scale Rohingya migration to Karachi made Karachi one of the largest population centres of Rohingyas in the world outside of Myanmar.^[221]

Central Asian migrants from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have also settled in the city.^[222] Domestic workers from the Philippines are employed in Karachi’s posh locales, while many of the city’s teachers hail from Sri Lanka.^[222] Many Sri Lankans moved to Karachi due to the 2022 Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka. Expatriates from China began migrating to Karachi in the 1940s, to work as dentists, chefs and shoemakers, while many of their descendants continue to live in Pakistan.^[222][223] Chinese also reached Karachi after 2015 in large number due to the CPEC project. The city is also home to a small number of British and American expatriates.^[224]

During World War II, about 3,000 Polish refugees from the Soviet Union, with some Polish families who chose to remain in the city after Partition.^[225][226] Post-Partition Karachi also once had a sizable refugee community from post-revolutionary Iran.^[222]

The Pakistani Government is developing the Karachi Metrobus project, which is a 6-line 150-kilometre (93+1⁄4-mile) bus rapid transit system.^[262] The Metrobus project was inaugurated by then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 25 February 2016. Sharif said the “project will be more beautiful than Lahore Metro Bus”.^[263] Orange and Green Lines are operational while Red-Line is underconstruction.

In 2022, provincial government launched Peoples Bus Service having fleet size of 100+ which run on 12 different routes on nominal fare. The buses are air-conditioned, have wifi, have priority seeting for disabled and elderly and are wheelchair accessible.

Red buses are for general public. Pink buses are for women only. White buses are environment friendly electric buses having designated charging points.

Karachi Circular Railway is a partially active regional public transit system in Karachi, which serves the Karachi metropolitan area. KCR was fully operational between 1969 and 1999. Since 2001, restoration of the railway and restarting the system had been sought.^[264][265] In November 2020, the KCR partially revived operations.^[266]

KCR was included in CPEC by Shehbaz Sharif and construction started in 2022. Existing 43 km KCR track and stations would be completely rebuilt into automated rapid transit system with electric trains. The route would not be changed however many underpasses and bridges would be built along the route to eliminate 22-level crossings. New KCR would be similar to Lahore‘s Orange Train. New KCR would have joint stations with Karachi Metrobus at points of intersection. Project would be operational by 2025.

With its hub at Karachi City station on I. I. Chundrigar Road, KCR will connect the city centre with several industrial, commercial and residential districts within the city.^[267]

A tramway service was started in 1884 in Karachi but was closed in 1975.^[268][269] However, the revival of tramway service is proposed by Karachi Administrator Iftikhar Ali. Turkey has offered assistance in the revival and launching modern tramway service in Karachi.^[270]

Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport is the busiest airport of Pakistan with a total of 7.2 million passengers in 2018. The current terminal structure was built in 1992, and is divided into international and domestic sections. Karachi’s airport serves as a hub for the flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), as well as for Air Indus, Serene Air and airblue. The airport offers non-stop flights to destinations throughout East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf States, Europe and North America.^[271][272]

The largest shipping ports in Pakistan are the Port of Karachi and the nearby Port Qasim, the former being the oldest port of Pakistan. Port Qasim is located 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of the Port of Karachi on the Indus River estuary. These ports handle 95% of Pakistan’s trade cargo to and from foreign ports. These seaports have modern facilities which include bulk handling, containers and oil terminals.^[273] The ports are part of the Maritime Silk Road.^[274]