essay of karachi

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Karachi , city and capital of Sindh province, southern Pakistan . It is the country’s largest city and principal seaport and is a major commercial and industrial centre. Karachi is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea immediately northwest of the Indus River delta.

The city has been variously called Caranjee, Crochey, Krotchey, Currachee, and Kurrachee, all of which are believed to be variants of the same name. In the 18th century it was known as Kalachi-jo-Goth,meaning “the village of Kalachi” (Kalachi being the name of an erstwhile head of the settlement).

The impetus to Karachi’s development originally came from its role as the port serving the Indus River valley and the Punjab region of British India . The development of air travel subsequently increased Karachi’s importance. It is also the port serving the landlocked country of Afghanistan . Area city, 228 square miles (591 square km); Greater Karachi, 560 square miles (1,450 square km). Pop. (2017) city, 14,916,456; (2018 est.) urban agglom., 15,400,000.

Physical and human geography

Karachi Harbour, on the shores of which the city is situated, is a safe and beautiful natural harbour. It is protected from storms by Kiamāri Island, Manora Island, and Oyster Rocks, which together block the greater part of the harbour entrance in the west.

A low-lying coastal strip runs along the shore of the harbour. Away from the coast, the ground rises gently to the north and east to form a large plain, from 5 to 120 feet (1.5 to 37 metres) above sea level , on which the city of Karachi is built. The Malīr River, a seasonal stream, passes through the eastern part of the city, and the Layāri River, also seasonal, runs through the most densely populated northern section. Some ridges and isolated hills occur in the north and east; Mango Pīr, the highest elevation, is 585 feet high.

The 560 square miles that constituted the Federal Capital Area of Pakistan in 1948 are considered, for all practical purposes, to form the Karachi metropolitan area . Almost half of the area is occupied by the city and its suburbs, and the surrounding 332 square miles consist of agricultural land and wasteland.

Karachi has pleasant weather for the greater part of the year. May and June are the hottest months, when the mean maximum temperature is about 93 °F (34 °C). Spells of enervating weather occasionally prevail in May and October, during which the temperature shoots up to 105 °F (41 °C). The coolest months are January and February, during which the mean minimum temperature remains about 56 °F (13 °C). A biting north wind occasionally blows in these months, during which the temperature may drop to 40 °F (4 °C). The relative humidity varies from 58 percent in October, the driest month, to 82 percent in August, the wettest month. The average rainfall is 8 inches (203 mm); most of the rain falls during a total of 9 or 10 days in the months of June, July, and August.

The city faces pollution problems. High humidity in the region does not permit evaporation of stagnant water in some places, while fumes from factories and automobiles contribute to air pollution , in spite of land and sea breezes.

The natural vegetation is scanty. Seaweed rises in tangles, and mangroves grow along some of the shores. Coarse grass, cactus, and castor plants occur on the plains and hills, and date and coconut palms grow in the river valleys.

The common wild animals are wolves, chinkaras (a type of gazelle), hog deer, jackals, wild cats, and hares. Domestic animals include sheep, goats, horses, and cows. Local birds include geese, ducks, snipe, cranes, flamingos, and ibis. Various types of snakes are found in the region, particularly cobras, kraits, vipers, and pythons.

The most striking aspect of Karachi’s layout is the west-to-east parallel alignment of the four arterial roads—Nishter Road (formerly called Lawrence Road), Mohammed Ali Jinnah Road (formerly Bandar Road), Shahrah-e-Liaquat (Frere Road), and I.I. Chundrigar Road (McCleod Road). Beginning at Mereweather Tower in the vicinity of the port, these roads run through the centre of the city. Several roads, such as Napier Road, Dr. Zia-ud-din Ahmed Road (Kutchery Road), and Garden Road, cut perpendicularly across these arteries from north to south.

The old town lies near the port, to the north of M.A. Jinnah Road, and with extensions stretching along the material roads for over a mile; unplanned, it is reminiscent of medieval towns of the Middle East or Europe. East of the old town are such districts as the Drigh Cantonment, the Civil Lines (residential areas for senior civil service officers), and the Saddar Bazar. This area is planned on a checkerboard pattern and shows European characteristics. Beyond this stretch several radial roads, along which growth has taken the form of neighbourhood units; each unit is laid out with straight, broad roads connected by smaller streets.

The land-use pattern of the city is complex. In the central area, the preponderance of residential property tends to form a matrix within which all other functions are distributed. There is, however, a marked concentration of commercial buildings at the western ends of M.A. Jinnah Road and I.I. Chundrigar Road. Wholesale businesses are located in the old town, retail businesses along M.A. Jinnah Road and in Saddar Bazar, and the government offices on Shahrah-e-Liaquat, near Saddar. The outer areas are dominated by dormitory suburbs interspersed with a scattering of cantonments (military quarters), agricultural tracts, saltworks, airports, railway stations, and marshaling yards.

The city proper has old and decayed buildings , occupied by members of the middle and lower income groups. Farther from the city centre are modern bungalows occupied by richer persons; the outer zone is occupied by workers.

Karachi has a variety of types of buildings. The central area contains apartment bungalows, barracks, and multistoried buildings; the outer areas are characterized by bungalows, blocks of flats, and quarters (streets of small houses). Buildings of the British period were constructed with stone in Western styles of architecture; other stone buildings in the central city show a blending of Eastern and Western styles and have towers, domes, pillars, arches, hanging balconies, and rectangular courtyards. Buildings in the outer areas are built of cement blocks, and with few exceptions they show no uniformity in design. Some follow contemporary North American design, while others incorporate features of traditional Muslim architecture.

Essay on Karachi – 500 words

500 words essay on karachi, introduction.

Karachi is the largest city and most populous city in Pakistan. It is the former capital of Pakistan and now serves as the capital of the province of Sindh. Karachi is also most notoriously known as the “City of Lights,” Karachi is a bustling metropolis with a population of over 21 million people. The city households people of every ethnicity, religion, and race. This includes Balochies, Urdu speakers, Punjabis, etc.

Important in Pakistan’s Economy

Karachi plays a vital role in the economy of Pakistan, with a thriving port and a large industrial base. Karachi holds almost 200% of Pakistan’s GDP. Karachi partakes in 35% of the total earned revenue of Pakistan in the fiscal year of July 2021 to jun2022. The city is home to Pakistan’s stock exchange. Karachi also generates about 25% of the industrial output.

Rich culture

Karachi has a rich history and culture. Karachi has been habited for millennia now but with a different name. Karachi was previously known as ‘Kalachi’. Karachi has many historical landmarks and monuments. The most famous of these is the Mohatta Palace, a beautiful building that was built in the 1920s in the Art Deco style. The palace is now a museum and is open to the public. Another famous landmark is the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, which is dedicated to the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The mausoleum is a popular tourist destination and is an important symbol of national unity. Karachi also houses

Karachi is also home to many beautiful beaches, such as Clifton Beach, which is one of the most popular spots for locals and tourists alike. Karachi was also called Paris of the east because of the beautiful outposts it holds. Because of the vast diverse population of Karachi consisting of almost every ethnicity including Bengalis, Karachi is home to some of the most famous Pakistani dishes and cuisines. Karachi is also notorious for its street vendors.

The Problems

But of course, all that glitters is not gold. Karachi faces a lot of problems practically the highest in the whole country. This includes a lack of infrastructure and inadequate public transportation. Karachi is also the biggest hub of crime rates in Pakistan. This includes robbery, mobile snatching, kidnapping, etc.

The city is also suffering from some major issues such as pollution, water scarcity, and poor waste management. This makes life in Karachi extremely hard and unhealthy and even dangerous.

Karachi also serves as the graveyard for some of the worst times in Pakistan’s history. This includes bomb blasts, hijacking of airplanes, and other major terrorist attacks.

Countermeasures

The government of Pakistan has taken steps to address these issues and to improve the city’s infrastructure. New projects have been launched, such as the construction of a new airport and the expansion of the city’s metro system. The government of Pakistan has been trying constantly to install countermeasures to combat these issues but the unstable government and the changing of policies of the government of Pakistan have badly hurt the city of Karachi.

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Understanding Pakistan Through the Story of Karachi

Samira shackle offers a portrait of a city.

I moved to Karachi in the aftermath of riots, arriving to smashed shop windows and the smell of burning tires. It was 2012 and the city had been engulfed by protests against a YouTube video that made offensive statements about the Prophet Muhammad. The city’s few remaining cinemas had been attacked, and churches had taken extra security precautions, lest the mob hold Pakistan’s Christians accountable for the crimes of the American filmmakers. The scale of destruction was disproportionate to the offence itself. I was a Londoner moving to my mother’s hometown, a place I had visited only once since childhood. This was an immediate introduction to the discontent that bubbled beneath the surface of the city, always ready to erupt into violence.

I walked out of the airport into a heavy, humid night and was collected by my aunt, my mother’s cousin, with whom I planned to stay. We got into the back of the car; up front was the driver. (This felt unnatural to me to begin with, although I knew that it was common for well-off families in Pakistan to employ a full-time driver; many companies do the same for their office staff.) Karachi is a web of flyovers and highways, the sides of the roads dotted with battered colonial facades, concrete monstrosities, improvised shacks and half-built shells of buildings. Ornate plasterwork sits below poorly constructed high-rises designed only to maximize the space.

To travel on these roads is to be confronted with the massive population of this heaving city. We drove through traffic sprawling into multiple lanes. Motorbikes, sometimes bearing up to five family members, wove in and out between the cars, and men clung to the tops and sides of minibuses. As we drove, my aunt dispensed some safety advice. If a man on a motorbike stops by your car window and flashes a gun, don’t ask questions, just hand over your cash and phone. Change your timings, routes and vehicles frequently to minimize the risk of kidnap. If you pass through a dangerous district, don’t stop—not even if someone crashes into you.

Over the following weeks, I realized why most of this advice was predicated on being in a car: travelling around the city was when Karachi’s wealthier citizens were most vulnerable to the violence that surrounded them. Like most affluent residents of the city, my relatives were somewhat insulated. They lived behind high walls, protected by 24-hour armed guards. Even the cafes and shops they frequented were surrounded by metal detectors and bored security guards with AK-47s slung over their shoulders. There was good reason for this. Karachi was in the throes of one of the worst outbreaks of violence it had seen since the 1990s. Every day, some 15 to 20 people were killed in targeted attacks by rival ethnic groups or political parties, and whole neighborhoods were frequently off-limits due to rioting or running street battles. But the city was so big that even as this was happening, life in the more affluent districts could go on more or less as normal.

The areas of Clifton and Defence, where most of my relatives and friends lived, formed a city within a city, their wide streets, lush greenery and palatial houses a world away from the urban warfare of Lyari or Orangi. Here, the backdrop of violence quickly became mundane: perhaps a day trip to the beach would be impossible due to a security alert, or dinner plans would have to be rearranged because of a citywide strike. For all Karachi’s vast sprawl, most of its citizens live in a tightly constricted geography, not venturing too far from their locale lest they stray into danger.

Each morning, I sat with my aunt in a marble-floored living room overlooking a luxuriant garden where blooming coral trees spilled over a pagoda. The pet parrot, who was loud and surprisingly vicious, squawked in the background, picking up the odd word from conversations. Tellingly, one of his favorites was tamasha , the Urdu word often used to mean “commotion,” referring to a protest or riot. Over breakfast, I would look through the English-language newspapers, reaching first for the Express Tribune . It published a crime map every day in its Karachi edition, under headings like “Shootings and raids” and “Mishaps and bodies found,” a half-page infographic mapping out the violence consuming areas of the city. I would skim through the daily accounts of targeted killings of political workers and gang battles, the latest convulsions in the multiple conflicts that have racked Karachi for decades. From the vantage point of the comfortable living room, the street war unfolding a few miles away felt unreal and distant, just a headcount on a page.

The violence had deep roots. Karachi’s history is one of migration and rapid expansion. In 1947, Karachi was a port city with a population of fewer than 500,000 people. Today, there are closer to 20 million, more than triple the population of London. When Pakistan was formed out of the bloody Partition of India, trainloads of Muslims crossed the border in search of a new homeland, arriving exhausted and brutalized. Karachi was the final stop on the train, and as the refugees were turned away from everywhere else, it was their destination by default. These migrants, who became known as Mohajirs, settled first in sprawling refugee camps and then took up the government jobs left vacant by the Hindus and Sikhs who had fled in the other direction.

My grandparents married in 1948, a few months after Partition; the wedding celebrations had to be scaled down because Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated that week. Soon afterwards, my grandmother left her home in a Muslim part of northern India to live with my grandfather’s family in Karachi. Immediately, she began to volunteer in the refugee camps that engulfed swathes of the city. Two years later, in 1950, my mother was born. Despite these harsh beginnings, as the capital of a new nation, Karachi was infused with a feeling of hope and possibility—Pakistan was a new country, forging a national identity, and this was the city at the center of it all. This was the Karachi that my mother and grandmother had told me about: a cosmopolitan place full of energy and action.

In the decades since Partition, Karachi has been home to a series of complex and ever-evolving conflicts, with sectarian and ethnic resentment mingling with politics and organized crime. First was the tension between the Mohajirs and the local Sindhi population. The Sindhis were broadly less educated and resented the newcomers dominating them in business and public sector jobs. The optimism that was Karachi’s mood music in the early days of nation-building hardened into mutual suspicion, hostility and aggression. In the 1970s, my grandparents and their four children—my mother, two aunts and my uncle—moved to the UK, making a new life among the tree-lined avenues of northwest London. It was after they left, through the 1970s and 1980s, that the tensions between Karachi’s different groups flared into riots and led to the formation of noxious ethnic political movements.

Later, people flooded into Karachi from Afghanistan, displaced by the war, and from Pakistan’s north-west and elsewhere in the country because of violence or natural disaster. These subsequent waves of migration followed the same pattern, with a growing number of ethnic groups fiercely competing for physical space and economic resources. Even today, when earthquakes or bombs, floods or gunfire have displaced people from their homes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan, they still flock to Karachi, attracted by that sometimes arrhythmic but perpetually beating heart of economic promise.

All of Pakistan has converged here, along with the tensions and rivalries that automatically follow. Many of the parties that dominate the political landscape today have their roots in ethnic identity. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has long dominated Karachi’s politics, represents the Mohajir community. It evolved from an angry student movement during the riots and ethnic tension of the 1970s and 1980s. The Awami National Party (ANP) represents Pashtuns, from the northwest of the country. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), traditionally one of the main parties of national government, is grounded in the heartlands of Sindh, the province in which Karachi sits.

While the party aspires to speak to a wider audience with its message of social justice, it relies on rural Sindh for its core support. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML–N), the other main party of government, barely features in Karachi because it focuses almost entirely on its ethnic Punjabi base. In recent years, there has been some disruption of this old order. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) was elected to national government in 2018, its anticorruption message appealing to young and upwardly mobile city dwellers rather than to any single ethnic group.

Compounding the pressure of multiple migrations and deep-rooted ethnic allegiances is the fact that the city can barely keep pace with its constant, dizzying expansion. Buildings, half-buildings and makeshift shacks have sprung up to accommodate the steady stream of newcomers. Services have not developed quickly enough. Vast areas of Karachi have no proper sewerage system, no connection to the mains water supply or electricity, and scarcely any police presence. Always ready to fill the gaping holes left by the state are criminal gangs, with mafias trading in these utilities as well as in weapons, extortion and drugs. Many of the gangs are intimately connected to political parties, which are active participants in the street wars that afflict their constituents. Most have militant wings that, at different points, have brutally intimidated opponents—through abduction, torture, even murder—and ties to the criminal gangs that for a long time ran the city. Extortion, after all, is a handy way to raise funds, while controlling the sale of land is an efficient way to shore up your voter banks.

Karachi’s politics have particularly high stakes, but they play out against a tumultuous national backdrop. Successive politicians and military rulers have sought to exploit the nation’s ethnic divisions for their own gain, the consequences of which are marked in blood on Karachi’s streets. Pakistan has spent almost half of its 70 years under military dictatorship, with successive elected governments overthrown by an army which plays a disproportionate role in public life. Even when civilian politicians are in power, the army and intelligence services continue to pull the strings. This means that many state institutions are weak and ill-equipped to meet the needs of a wildly expanding population. And the army is capricious, sometimes supporting violent movements, sometimes brutally suppressing them.

When I moved to Karachi, the country was experiencing a new democratic moment. In 2008, the most recent military leader, General Musharraf, had stood down and called an election, after losing public support following a clash with the judiciary. During the campaign that followed, Benazir Bhutto was killed by a suicide bomb at a rally in Rawalpindi. But her party, the center-left PPP, went on to win a majority and her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, became president. They were Karachiites, but also—like every mainstream politician in Pakistan—notorious for corruption. As far as I could see, their government hadn’t brought any tangible improvements to the city.

I covered the 2013 election, when power swung back to the other main party, the center-right PML-N, headed by Nawaz Sharif. It was the country’s first ever democratic transfer from one civilian government to another: every other elected administration in Pakistan’s short history had been ousted by the army. This was cause for celebration, as was another election and change of government in 2018—but certain factors have remained constant: the dominance of the military in public life and the nexus of corruption and power that controls basic resources such as water, electricity and land.

The city I moved to in 2012 bore little resemblance to the one my family had left behind in the 1970s. I spent months disoriented by its scale, trying to understand not only the physical web of streets, but the second layer of geography—the corners where one set of allegiances switches to another, the blocks where hostile forces huddled. It would take more time to fill in the blanks, to turn the pencil outline of the city’s layout into a shaded image in full technicolor, showing where each of its multiple warring elements sat.

In 2013, after a year in Pakistan, I returned to London. But I continued to make regular visits to Karachi, drawn back by its complexity. At home in the UK, people saw Pakistan as a lawless, terrifying place. It was there in the awkward silence when I discussed upcoming trips, or in well-meaning comments about my “bravery.” Travelling around Pakistan, I noticed that many people elsewhere in the country had a similar feeling about Karachi: that it was lawless, dangerous, impossible. On the face of it, they had a point. Karachi is polluted and violent, and in many ways a difficult place to live, or even to visit. But despite these challenges, the city has an almost gravitational pull. Rightly or wrongly, millions of people around Pakistan continue to see it as a place where they can make their fortune, or escape the inequalities of their rural homes.

Like the vast numbers who pack up and move to the city every year, I found myself unable to escape Karachi’s orbit. My urge to return, and to keep returning, was not just about family ties. Sometimes I told my relatives I was coming, sometimes I didn’t—my work as a journalist was not always compatible with their safety concerns. For people who had no option but to live among the threats and try as best they could to avoid danger, it was difficult to see why I would choose to spend time in the very localities that had become synonymous with violence, the slums whose names appeared in news broadcasts and on crime maps. But to me, understanding Karachi felt crucial to understanding Pakistan. The gang wars and political battles may be geographically contained, but they reflect and anticipate nationwide shifts. Unpicking the minutiae of the daily struggles taking place on these dusty streets reveals something about Pakistan and its place in the world.

Over the decade that I have spent going regularly to Karachi, the city has changed. The violence reached a terrible crescendo when the international airport was attacked in 2014. After that, a paramilitary-led security crackdown reshaped the lines of power in the city. As people in different parts of Karachi shared their stories of conflict and crackdown with me, I began to understand how they found snatches of normality in extreme circumstances and reserves of courage in the face of fear. Karachi’s citizens have had to learn to navigate a complicated and ever-shifting web of criminality and violence, of state neglect and police brutality, and to build their own networks of humanity and community. This is the front line of global urbanization at its most unforgiving.

__________________________________

From Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Divided City by Samira Shackle. Used with the permission of Melville House. Copyright © 2021 by Samira Shackle.

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Karachi: The City of Lights

Welcome to the pakistan's largest megalopolis and its top 15 spots..

By SOCH Outreach Foundation

Pakistan And Jinnah (1947-12) by Margaret Bourke-White LIFE Photo Collection

History of the City

The tale of Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, did not just start with the establishment of the nation in 1947. Rather this present-day metropolis initially started out as a small, coastal fishing village in the 17th century. The settlement expanded rapidly and was named Kolachi in 1729. The population of the city increased manifold due to the influx of Muslim immigrants who traveled to what was then the capital city of Pakistan when it became a separate country in 1947. Although the state capital is now Islamabad, Karachi remains Pakistan’s largest city.

Karachi - The city of lights SOCH Outreach Foundation

Let’s explore some of the famous spots of this vast city.

Tomb of Quaid e azam (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

The Mausoleum of the Founder of Pakistan

The mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-E-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, is a landmark and is the center of the expansive metropolis.

A train on a Karachi, Pakistan cantt station (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Karachi Cantonment Station (exterior)

A loaded coolie makes their way into the station.

Karachi, Pakistan Cantt station and a train in background (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Karachi Cantonment Station

One of the first ports of entry and exit for goods and passengers to and from the city.

seaview sunset shot (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Seaview Beach Front

Camels are often decked up for visitors and tourists to ride on.

Chaat Thela at seaview (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

An itinerant chaat seller eyes customers on the beach.

buggy cars on seaview all lit up (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Karachi: The Melting Pot (2023) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Watch our film on Karachi.

Full view of Empress Market (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Empress Market

Karachi's unofficial first mall and hub for all things food related. Aromatic herbs, fragrant spices, subtle and sharp flavors, a variety of sweet, spicy, savory and everything in between is available in abundance at Empress Market.

Street vendors selling vegetables (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Seasonal Vegetables

Fresh produce arrives in Karachi from all parts of the country to be sold in markets all over the city.

Dried red chilli (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Dried Dunidcut Chilies

Chilies from Kunri, Sindh, on sale in a Karachi market.

Freshly milled spices on display in Jodia bazaar (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Freshly ground masalas (spices) can be found in specialist spice markets like Jodia Bazaar in Karachi.

Grilled Kebabs (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Karachi’s Popular Street Foods

Karachiites adore all things barbecued. Here chicken kebabs can be seen being grilled on live coals.

Close Up of grilled Kebabs (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Seekh kebab of minced beef being grilled.

Plates of Biryani ready to be served (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Be it on the streets or in homes, biryani is arguably one of Karachi's finest rice dishes.

A serving of Zahid Nihari (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Officially Pakistan's national dish, spiced meat is slow cooked overnight till tender and topped with fresh ginger and chilies.

The egg and kebab patty is served with a bun, green sauce and onions and two white flour buns (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

The all-in-one meal for those on the go.

Close Up of Samosas (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Freshly fried potato samosas on display on the streets of Karachi.

Frying fresh fish on Burns Road (2020) SOCH Outreach Foundation

Food Market by Night

One of the most popular food streets in Karachi is Burns Road, where a vendor is frying spicy fish fillets for waiting customers.

From street food to fine dining, Karachi has something for everyone.

Produced by SOC Films  Project Director: Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy Producers:  Syed Ayub , Sameer Khan Project Manager:  Huma Shah Director of Photography:  Murtaza Ali Photography:  Karim Baig , Murtaza Ali Photography Editor:  Karim Baig Additional Video & Photography:  Khurram Victor Exhibits Writer:  Nazia Latif , Sameer Khan Exhibits :  Syed Ayub , Sameer Khan Art Direction :  Rahat Niazi   Associate Producer :  Asad Pabani Video Editor : Farhad Jamali  Color Grade:  Sourath Behan Additional Video Editing : Mishal Adhami  Sound Design:  Sameer Khan      

Regional Foods of Pakistan

Soch outreach foundation, mealtime feasts from pakistan, a virtual tour of asia’s largest chili market: kunri, thaal tales: pakistan’s bohra community, rediscovering the origins of biryani, sarson ka saag: mustard greens from southern punjab, jalebi: a sweet pakistani dessert, cool down with doodh soda, lassi - thirst quenchers, handcrafted treasures from sukkur.

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Transforming Karachi, Pakistan into a livable and competitive megacity

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Problems of Karachi Essay | 200 & 500 Words

by Pakiology | Aug 21, 2024 | Essay | 0 comments

Explore the multifaceted challenges faced by Karachi in this comprehensive essay. From overpopulation to traffic congestion, and water scarcity to political instability, discover the key issues affecting this bustling metropolis in our “Problems of Karachi Essay | 200 & 500 Words.”

Problems of Karachi Essay 200 Words

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, grapples with a myriad of complex issues that impact its diverse population, including students. Overpopulation, a pressing concern, strains resources, and infrastructure, leading to housing shortages and traffic congestion. The latter not only wastes valuable time but also contributes to air pollution and economic disruptions.

The city’s infrastructure is in decay, with potholed roads and inadequate public transport hindering students’ daily commute. Moreover, a severe water crisis, unequal water distribution, and contamination pose health risks, particularly for children. Energy shortages disrupt students’ study routines and hamper economic growth.

Political instability, ethnic tensions, and corruption further compound Karachi’s problems. Crime and security concerns, from street crimes to extortion threats, disrupt daily life and education. Environmental degradation, including air pollution and coastal erosion, jeopardizes the city’s future.

Educational challenges, such as limited access and varying educational quality, add to the city’s woes. The digital divide, highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, has exacerbated educational disparities.

In conclusion, Karachi faces a complex web of problems that affect students and residents alike, ranging from overpopulation and traffic congestion to water scarcity, political instability, and educational challenges. Addressing these issues requires collective efforts to ensure a better and more livable future for all in this vibrant metropolis.

Problems of Karachi Essay 500 Words

Introduction.

Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan and its economic hub, is a bustling metropolis known for its vibrant culture, diverse population, and economic opportunities. However, beneath its surface lies a myriad of complex and pressing problems that impact the daily lives of its residents. This essay aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the problems faced by Karachi, catering to all types of students, ranging from school to college levels.

I. Overpopulation

One of the most glaring issues plaguing Karachi is overpopulation. With a population of over 14 million (as of my last knowledge update in September 2021), Karachi is Pakistan’s most populous city. This rapid population growth has resulted in various challenges:

A. Housing Shortage: The city lacks adequate housing facilities to accommodate its ever-growing population. This has led to the emergence of informal settlements, commonly known as katchi abadis, characterized by substandard living conditions and a lack of basic amenities.

B. Strain on Infrastructure: Overpopulation places immense stress on infrastructure, including roads, public transport, and utilities. Traffic congestion is a daily ordeal for residents, leading to time wastage and increased air pollution.

C. Resource Scarcity: Overpopulation exacerbates the scarcity of essential resources such as water and electricity, leading to frequent shortages and increased prices.

II. Traffic Congestion

Karachi’s traffic congestion is a problem that affects everyone, from schoolchildren to working professionals. The city’s road infrastructure is inadequate to support its population’s vehicular needs, resulting in numerous issues:

A. Time Wastage: Commuters in Karachi often spend hours stuck in traffic, leading to productivity losses and stressful daily routines.

B. Air Pollution: Prolonged traffic congestion contributes to air pollution, which poses serious health risks to residents, particularly children and the elderly.

C. Economic Impact: Traffic congestion has a negative impact on the city’s economy as it disrupts the movement of goods and services, increasing costs for businesses and consumers.

III. Infrastructure Decay

The deteriorating state of Karachi’s infrastructure is a critical issue that affects students and the general population alike:

A. Poor Road Conditions: Many of Karachi’s roads are in disrepair, riddled with potholes and cracks, which not only cause traffic congestion but also pose safety hazards for commuters.

B. Inadequate Public Transport: The city’s public transportation system is outdated and inefficient, making it challenging for students to commute to schools and colleges.

C. Sanitation Problems: Karachi faces sanitation issues due to inadequate waste management infrastructure. This leads to unhygienic conditions that can contribute to the spread of diseases.

IV. Water Crisis

Access to clean and safe drinking water is a fundamental right, but Karachi faces a severe water crisis:

A. Unequal Distribution: Water is distributed inequitably across the city, with some areas receiving a more consistent supply than others. This disparity affects students’ ability to study and maintain good hygiene.

B. Contamination: Contaminated water sources in some parts of Karachi pose health risks, especially for children, who are more susceptible to waterborne diseases.

C. Groundwater Depletion: The over-extraction of groundwater has led to a decline in the water table, further exacerbating the water crisis.

V. Energy Shortages

Karachi, like many parts of Pakistan, grapples with energy shortages:

A. Frequent Load Shedding: Unplanned load shedding disrupts students’ study routines, making it difficult to rely on consistent electricity for lighting and electronic devices.

B. Economic Impact: Energy shortages also have a significant economic impact, affecting businesses and industries in Karachi, which, in turn, affects job opportunities for college graduates.

VI. Political Instability

Political instability has a far-reaching impact on Karachi’s problems:

A. Governance Challenges: Frequent changes in local and provincial governments have hindered long-term planning and the implementation of sustainable solutions to the city’s problems.

B. Ethnic Tensions: Karachi is known for its ethnic diversity, but political instability has sometimes fueled ethnic tensions, leading to violence and disruptions in daily life.

C. Corruption: Corruption within the bureaucracy can hinder development projects and the equitable distribution of resources.

VII. Crime and Security

Crime and security issues in Karachi are a concern for students and residents alike:

A. Street Crimes: Incidents of street crimes, such as theft and muggings, can make students and their families anxious about their safety.

B. Extortion: Some businesses and individuals face extortion threats, impacting their ability to operate freely.

C. Impact on Education: Security concerns can disrupt education, making it difficult for students to attend school or college regularly.

VIII. Environmental Degradation

Karachi’s environment is deteriorating rapidly, which can have long-term consequences for students:

A. Air Pollution: High levels of air pollution can lead to respiratory problems, affecting students’ health and concentration in school.

B. Coastal Degradation: Karachi’s coastline is under threat due to industrial pollution and unplanned development, impacting its natural beauty and ecosystem.

C. Climate Change: Karachi is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and sea-level rise, which can have far-reaching consequences for students’ lives.

IX. Educational Challenges

Finally, Karachi faces unique educational challenges:

A. Limited Access: Many children in the city, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, struggle to access quality education due to a lack of schools and resources.

B. Quality of Education: Even when schools are available, the quality of education varies widely, affecting students’ academic development.

C. Digital Divide: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the digital divide in Karachi, where many students lacked access to online learning resources.

In conclusion, Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most populous city, faces a multitude of interconnected problems that affect students and residents of all ages. These problems include overpopulation, traffic congestion, infrastructure decay, water and energy shortages, political instability, crime and security issues, environmental degradation, and educational challenges. Solving these issues requires concerted efforts from government authorities, civil society, and citizens. It is crucial for students to be aware of these problems and actively engage in finding solutions, as they represent the city’s future. Karachi’s challenges are immense, but with the right approach and commitment, they can be overcome to create a better and more livable city for all its residents.

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Top 12 Historical Places In Karachi, Pakistan

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Supposedly dating back to the early 18th century, Karachi sits on fertile soil once lived and worked on by homo sapiens as early as the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. Fast forward to more contemporary times, Karachi became a part of British India, when the city saw the construction of many European-style buildings. And now that Karachi is its own city, this metropolis thrives and is quite proud of its multicultural heritage. It also offers a number of excellent guesthouses and Airbnb vacation rentals for all kinds of travelers. All these considered, it’s absolutely no surprise that Karachi is one of the most recommended cities to visit if you’re embarking on a history tour. Continue reading to find out more about the top historical places in Karachi, Pakistan.

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1. Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam

If the history of a place fascinates you, you must stop by Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam before going back to your hotel in Karachi .

Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam is a historical monument in Karachi that holds great significance for the nation. The mausoleum houses the remains of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the revered founding father of Pakistan. The striking white marble structure and the graceful central dome of the structure define this architectural masterpiece that symbolizes the ideals of unity, faith, and discipline upon which Pakistan was founded in 1947.

Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam is not only a place of remembrance but also a symbol of the enduring legacy of the man who played a pivotal role in the creation of Pakistan and the preservation of its distinct identity. It remains a site of pilgrimage and reflection for millions of Pakistanis.

Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam Address : M.A Jinnah Rd, Central Jacob Lines Ghm، Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Fri - Tue: 2pm - 5:30pm; Wed - Thu: 10am - 5:30pm

2. Karachi Port Trust Building

Constructed during the British colonial era in the early 20th century, the Karachi Port Trust Building is one of the most popular tourist places in Karachi. It stands as a testament to the city’s maritime heritage and its pivotal role as a major port in the region. Its grandiose design, blending elements of Gothic and Indo-Saracenic architecture, reflects the rich architectural heritage of the city.

The building has not only been a hub for administrative and trade-related activities but has also witnessed key moments in Pakistan’s history, including its struggle for independence. Today, the Karachi Port Trust Building serves as a reminder of the enduring legacy of the port and its contributions to the economic and historical tapestry of Karachi and Pakistan as a whole.

Karachi Port Trust Building Address : Eduljee Dinshaw Road, West Wharf, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Website : Karachi Port Trust Building Opening hours : Mon - Fri: 8am - 4pm (closed on Sat & Sun)

3. Mohatta Palace Museum

Our first stop in Karachi is the Mohatta Palace Museum, distinctive for its Pink Jodhpur structure and Indo-Saracenic architecture. It was built in 1927 as the summer home of Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, a prominent Hindu Marwari mogul. Today, Mohatta Palace Museum holds a great number of treasures, from rare maps to Makli monuments that date back to thousands of years ago.

Mohatta Palace Museum Address : 7 Hatim Alvi Road, Block 5 Old Clifton, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh 75600, Pakistan Website : Mohatta Palace Museum Opening hours : Tues - Sun: 11am - 6pm (closed on Mon) Price : 0.19 USD; free for seniors, students, and children under 12

Tip from tour guide Ghulam Karachi Photo of Mohatta Palace Museum shared by Pakistan tour guide, Ghulam. Share tips to Facebook Whatsapp LinkedIn X Copy

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4. chaukhandi tombs.

From the seaside town of Clifton, make your way to Landhi Town to view the intricate Chaukhandi Tombs. Made of carved sandstone, these tombs are believed to have originated between the 15th and 18th centuries as an Islamic cemetery. Today, it’s a design marvel with a twist- the Chaukhandi Tombs are also regarded as one of the most haunted places in Pakistan.

Chaukhandi Tombs Address : N-5 near Landhi Town, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Open 24 hours daily Price : Free

Karachi Tour Guide

Ghulam Murtaza

Khush Aamdeed (welcome in Urdu) to the country of smiley faces and most curtseious Nation of world, where people are polite and very warm welcoming. We don't call tourists as clients we always call tourists " honored Guests". In Pakistani society Guest are considered as Blessing of God. and how we welcomes our blessing for this you have to visit Pakistan atlest once with Ghulam Murtaza.I am att... Read more

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I am a freelancer in the tourism industry, offering tour and travel services with 6 years of experience in creating unforgettable journeys. I possess extensive knowledge of the history, arts, culture, languages, and locations of all the beautiful areas of Pakistan. As a focused guide, I excel at multitasking and providing friendly service while meeting the needs of all guests. I am dedicated to... Read more

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5. frere hall.

Take a trip to Karachi’s British Colonial past by visiting Frere Hall, a Venetian-Gothic building that dates back to 1865. Frere Hall is one of Karachi’s most iconic structures and inside, you’ll find the beautiful mural painted by Sadequain Naqqash, one of Pakistan’s most revered artists. His painting almost rivals Michaelangelo’s work at the Sistine Chapel.

Frere Hall Address : Fatima Jinnah Road, Civil Lines Saddar, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Mon - Sat: 9am - 5pm (closed on Sun) Price : Free

6. Quaid-e-Azam House Museum

Also known as the Flagstaff House, the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum holds a special place in Pakistani history. After all, it was the home of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father. The house is now a museum where you can view some of the furnishings used by Jinnah and his sister, as well as archaeological finds.

Quaid-e-Azam House Museum Address : Fatima Jinnah Road, Karachi Cantonment, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Website : Quaid-e-Azam House Museum Opening hours : Thurs - Tue: 9am - 5pm (closed on Wed) Price : 0.13 USD (adults); 0.064 USD (children ages 6 to 12); 1.91 USD (foreigners), free for students in groups

7. Khaliq Deena Hall and Library

Khaliq Deena Hall and Library (also known as Khalikdina Hall) is both a cultural and architectural treasure. Built in 1906, it was used by British India as a court. For years, the Khaliq Deena Hall and Library was abandoned to waste, but thanks to local historical preservation projects, it is now a protected site.

Khaliq Deena Hall and Library Address : M.A. Jinnah Road, New Labour Colony Nanakwara, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Mon - Sat: 9am - 5pm (closed on Sun) Price : Free

8. St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Cathedral and its imposing Gothic Revival architecture is quite the landmark! Opened to the public in 1881, this massive structure serves as the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi. Even if you didn’t come to pray, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in all its ornate glory, will definitely take your breath away.

St. Patrick's Cathedral Address : Shahrah-e-Iraq, Karachi Cantonment Saddar, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Price : Free

9. Empress Market

Whoever thought history and retail therapy can’t go hand in hand simply hasn’t visited shopping destinations such as Empress Market. Built between 1884 and 1889 and named after the formidable Queen Victoria, Empress Market has been in operation for hundreds of years. For some fun things to do , enter the market and find anything from spices, groceries, fresh and local produce, seafood, and even some antiques.

Empress Market Address : Saddar Town, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Mon - Fri: 1pm - 11pm (closed on Sat & Sun) Price : Free

10. Merewether Clock Tower

Raised from the ground up starting in 1884, this old building in Karachi strikes an impressive figure in the busy streets of the city. You might even think its Gothic Revival architecture is slightly out of place, but it’s part of Pakistani history. Today, the clock tower still operates, just in case you’ve yet to adjust to the local time.

Merewether Clock Tower Address : Merewether Tower, M.A. Jinnah Road, Boharpir, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Opening hours : Mon - Fri: 9am - 7pm; Sat: 9am - 5pm (closed on Sun)

11. Katrak Bandstand

Standing alone and proud amidst the ruins, the Katrak Bandstand is quite lovely in its isolation. In its heyday, Katrak Bandstand was a favorite spot for recreation. Maybe one day it will be a lively spot again, once the master-planned community of Bahria Town is finished and opened to the public.

Katrak Bandstand Address : Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan Price : Free

12. Denso Hall

Built in 1886, Denso Hall is one of Karachi’s city landmarks that has fallen into a state of disrepair. That said, the community is working hard to restore this beautiful Venetian Gothic building and turn it into one of Karachi’s heritage sites. For now, you can go and admire the intricate exterior details of Denso Hall from the streets.

Denso Hall Address : M.A. Jinnah Road, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh, Pakistan

To love Karachi is to know its history

If you are wondering what Karachi is famous for, you have to learn more about its rich history by visiting these iconic places, which will give you a complete insight into Karachi and Pakistani culture. Head to the best spots for biryani when you are hungry and retire to your room in one of the best 5-star hotels in Karachi ! For more Karachi travel guides, don’t forget to browse our website.

Frequently asked questions about historical places in Karachi, Pakistan

Which historical places in Karachi are some of the oldest ones?

Looking forward to exploring some of the oldest places in Karachi to get to know its history and culture? You can visit Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam, the Karachi Port Trust Building, and the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum.

Which historical places in Karachi are haunted according to popular legends?

Karachi has its share of historical places that are haunted according to popular legends. If you are a fan of urban legends and would like to explore some of them, you can visit Chaukhandi Tombs.

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Karachi, Pakistan: Exploring The City of Lights

• Author david
• Date October 30th, 2021

Situated on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast in the country’s Sindh province is the capital city of Karachi. Pakistan’s largest city and the twelfth-largest city in the world, Karachi the city of lights is considered a beta-global city. It’s also an ethnically and religiously diverse city, as well as the country’s most cosmopolitan city in southern pakistan. That makes the best things to do in Karachi, Pakistan equally varied and unique!

Karachi has been inhabited for over a thousand years, though it was officially founded in 1729 as Kolachi. Then a fortified village, Kolachi’s importance grew rapidly after the British East Indian Company arrived in the mid-19 th century.

The British transformed the city into a transportation hub by connecting it to the rail system (Karachi Cantonment Station) and the extensive rail network they’d built throughout the Indian subcontinent, and turning it into a prominent port city.

Over the years, Karachi has played a crucial role in the political landscape, becoming a focal point for major political parties.

After Pakistan won its independence in 1947, Karachi, now recognized as the seventh most prominent city, grew further as hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from India flooded the city during the Partition. It continued its economic growth in the years that followed, as Muslim immigrants arrived from across South Asia.

Now Pakistan’s top financial and industrial center, and a vibrant nightlife destination, Karachi is known as karachi the city of lights. I loved my time in this incredible city, which really is world-class in many aspects. To explore the city, I teamed up with the amazing people at Manaky , a curated travel marketplace dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences for people traveling through Pakistan. They were a dream to work with and really made my time in Karachi truly special.

The people in Karachi are among the friendliest I’ve ever met in my life and the cuisine blew me away. It’s a true traveler’s dream and a city I think everyone should experience at least once. These are the top 20 things you must do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Go on a Breakfast Street Food Tour

You can’t talk about the top things to do in Karachi, Pakistan without mentioning a breakfast food tour. Early on my first morning in the city, my guide Furqan took me on a diverse and wide-reaching tour, starting with Karachi’s King of Parathas at Quetta Alamgir Hotel!

Quetta Alamgir Hotel

This famous cook is known for cooking up hundreds of lachha parathas in a massive, circular pan just feet from the street. These flaky, layered, pan-fried flatbreads pair well with omelets and a chickpea and masala mixture called chana.  

These flaky, crispy, golden-brown parathas are quite similar to the parottas you’ll find in southern India. I recommend tearing off a bit and eating it with the fiery, fluffy omelet and hearty chana.  

It’s honestly a mixture you can’t beat. The mix of contrasting textures and mouthwatering flavors is the best way to kick off your day. Add some chai for a scorching and frothy treat!

Quetta Alamgir Hotel Alamgir Rd, Delhi Mercantile Society Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan +92 21 34926333

Sialkot Milk Centre

After your spicy breakfast, you’ll probably need some dairy to cool down the fire lingering in your mouth. For that, head over to a popular spot called Sialkot Milk Centre, which offers baked goods, milkshakes, and yes, lassi.

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink that’s often enjoyed after a spicy meal in Pakistan and India. It comes in many different flavors, thicknesses, and styles across the subcontinent. The lactose helps temper the heat on your tongue and coats your stomach to aid in digestion. Plus, the creamy texture is just plain delicious!

Sialkot Milk Centre Apartment, West Land Apartments   Ismail Naineetalwala Chowrangi Bahadurabad Bahadur Yar Jang CHS Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan

Visit Frere Hall

If you’re a history buff like me, you may want to break up your food adventures with a visit to one of Karachi’s most notable landmarks. In the colonial-era Saddar Town in the center of the city, you’ll find Frere Hall, a British colonial building that dates back to 1865.

Frere Hall was built in the Venetian-Gothic architectural style, but blends elements of local and British architecture. It was initially was built to serve as the town hall, but it now operates as a library and exhibition space. The library inside, Liaquat National Library, is one of the largest in Karachi. It’s home to over 70,000 books, including rare manuscripts.

Frere Hall is surrounded by a large park with lots of benches and street food vendors. The vendors sell chaats and a delicious cross between ice cream and sorbet called kulfi. The kulfi is dense and creamy, and contains caramel and nuts. It’s a great way to cool off in the Pakistani heat and one of my favorite things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Frere Hall Fatima Jinnah Road Saddar Civil Lines Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan

Eat a Bun Kabab at Super Foods & Biryani Center

As you explore the streets of Karachi, you may come across a number of cooks preparing and stacking a massive number of fluffy, pancake-like egg patties on the edge of a grill. The egg patties are for a dish called bun kababs, which is a small sandwich consisting of kebab meat, egg, onions, and green chili chutney inside a white bun.

One of the best city to see this spectacle—and try a bun kabab—is Super Foods & Biryani Center. You can take your food to go if you wish, or you can eat in their dining area upstairs. I recommend sitting down and eating them.

The bun kababs are essentially slider-like breakfast sandwiches. The crispy and airy bun, coupled with the fluffy eggs, and the kick of heat from the chutney is outstanding. If you wish, you can add more onions and chutney, which are provided on the side. The onions add a nice touch of acidity and help bring the whole dish together! Having one is another thing you must do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Super Foods & Biryani Center Plot R 1340 Federal B Area Block 15 Gulberg Town, Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan

Visit the Shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi

When you travel to Karachi, one of the must-visit localities is the Clifton neighborhood. It’s a bustling, wealthy seaside area full of restaurants and street vendors. It’s also home to the Shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, a Muslim mystic and Sufi from the 8 th century.

Ghazi was a descendent of the prophet Mohammed and visited the area to spread Islam. After being killed by his enemies in the interior of the Sindh Province, Ghazi’s devotees buried him on a hill near Clifton Beach. The present-day shrine, the most visited in the country, was built around his grave 1,000 years later.

Keep in mind that, while the shrine is beautiful, you can only film and take photographs of the exterior. Cameras are not allowed inside, but phones are. If you visit, remember to be respectful of the rules as you marvel at the building’s beauty.

Shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi Block 4 Block 3 Clifton Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan  

Explore the Street Food on Burns Road

If you don’t explore the Pakistani street food on Burns Road while you’re in Karachi, you didn’t experience Karachi properly. From small holes-in-the-wall selling kachori, potato curry, dal, and achar to vendors grilling chargha (chicken stacked vertically on spits and arranged in a circle) to much more, you can find it all there!

The great thing about Burns Road is that they close half of the road to traffic nightly after 6 p.m. At that time, each restaurant along the road extends its seating out into the street to allow for the bustling dinner rush. It’s a great concept and one I personally enjoyed a lot!

New Delhi Gola Kebab House

My guide Furqan and I were sure to stop at New Delhi Gola Kebab House, an incredible spot that sells some of the best kebabs I ate in Pakistan. We ordered chicken kebabs, dhaga kebabs (a type of soft, minced seekh kebab), kebab fry, and a tender and smoky dish called khiri with parathas and chili chutney.  

With so many dishes, I barely knew where to begin! I loved the flavors of the dhaga kebab and kebab fry. The kebab fry was particularly tender and buttery, with a delicious minced texture. Eat them with the parathas for a real treat!

The chicken kebabs were also phenomenal. They had been nicely marinated in a beautiful spice mixture. I recommend dipping them into the chili chutney for some heat, but be warned—it’s very spicy!

My favorite dish there was the khiri. I couldn’t get enough of the smoky flavor and fatty, juicy texture. Together with the parathas and the chili chutney, it was heaven on my palate. I highly recommend this dish when you go to New Delhi Gola Kebab House. It’s one of my favorite dishes I ate in Karachi!

New Delhi Gola Kebab House Shahrah-e-Liaquat Burns Road  Karachi, Pakistan

Delhi Rabri House

Another spot along Burns Road you cannot miss is Delhi Rabri House. This dessert spot is the perfect place to grab something sweet and creamy after a heavy and spicy meal elsewhere on the street.

I recommend the restaurant’s namesake, rabri, which is a pudding-like sweet made from condensed milk and millet flour, and then topped with nuts. If you have a sweet tooth, it’s the perfect dish for you, as it’s full of sugar! You can get it plain or topped with pistachios. I recommend the latter, as the pistachios add a nice crunch and a delicious nutty flavor!

Delhi Rabri House Sadiq Heights, 108/3 Alamgir Road Bihar Muslim Society BMCHS Sharafabad Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan +92 333 3839507

Eat Pakistani Sindh Biryani at Biryani Wala

One of the most popular and most desirable neighborhoods in Karachi is the Clifton Neighborhood, which borders the ocean. There are a number of things to see there, but one of its best restaurants is Biryani Wala, which offers a number of varieties of the famous rice dish, biryani .

Biryani is a layered rice dish that’s made up of basmati rice, various proteins, vegetables, herbs, and masalas. It’s extremely popular throughout South Asia and can contain chicken, beef, fish, eggs, paneer, prawns, and more.  

Furqan and I went with their chicken and beef varieties. As is customary throughout the region, we dug in with our hands. The chicken biryani was full of texture and flavor despite being relatively light on spices. It also contained potatoes. Adding a yogurt dish called raita made it creamier and even more delicious!

The beef biryani was my favorite, though. It had a heavier and heartier feel than the chicken, and the spices cooked into it really made the biryani come to life! I’ve eaten biryani all over the world, and I can say that this is one of the best I’ve ever had!

Biryani Wala Shop No 1   Tai Zainab Arcade   Plot No 35/358 main   Dhoraji Karachi, 74200, Pakistan +92 21 34851112

Explore the Clifton Neighborhood

The Clifton neighborhood is Karachi’s wealthiest neighborhood. This seaside neighborhood is home to Clifton Beach, as well as a bustling commercial area where you can find a number of fantastic street vendors. Exploring the neighborhood was one of my favorite things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

These vendors sell everything from biryani to pani puri to a tangy, citrusy mosambe juice with black salt. But my favorite shop in the area is Sohny Sweet & Bakery, which sells dozens of different South Asian sweets. They include kalakand, barfi, halwa, and numerous cakes.

One thing you’ll learn in Pakistan and India is that they love their sweets, and boy do they love them to be extra sweet! If you’re like me and don’t have a massive sweet tooth, I recommend the walnut halwa, which was nutty and sweet without being overbearing. Their herbal baklava and rasgulla are other great options!

Sohny Sweet & Bakery Zone A – Block 7   Clifton, Karachi, Sindh 75600 Pakistan +92 21 35838140

Visit Clifton Beach

Clifton Beach is the most prominent beach and port city in Karachi and stretches from the city, all the way to the town of Ormara in Balochistan. Located along the Arabian Sea coast in the Clifton neighborhood, the beach also goes by the name Sea View.  

The beach is famous for its picturesque black sand, as well as recreational activities like camel, horse, and buggy rides. Visitors also don’t have to go far for food, as the beach is home to street food vendors and a number of restaurants, including a McDonald’s.

When I visited the beach, I was amazed by the width of the beach at low tide and its striking black sands. I also met a man who offers 15-minute-long camel rides for 100 rupees each. It’s very touristy but is still one of the top things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Eat Nihari at Javed Nihari

There are a number of hearty, meaty, and mouthwatering dishes in Pakistan, but the one called nihari has to be my favorite. This unbelievable dish consists of beef, bone marrow, and beef brains in a thick, rich, and oily stew. To try some of the best nihari Karachi has to offer, head over to Javed Nihari.

From the street, you can see the cooks preparing this Pakistani comfort food in gigantic pots along with freshly baked naan. You eat the nihari with the naan, and it is one of the most incredible flavor explosions I’ve ever experienced.

The beef is unbelievably soft and tender, and falls apart in your mouth. The buttery bone marrow, flavorful broth and oil, garlic, and green chilies in the dish only add to its amazing flavor profile. Combining it with the crispy, fresh naan elevates the entire dish and adds even more pleasing textures!

My mouth would not stop watering as I devoured this mind-blowing stew. It’s one of my favorite breakfasts I ate during my time in Pakistan. And it’s also one of the top things you must do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Javed Nihari Dastagir Road Federal B Area Block 15   Gulberg Town, Karachi Sindh, Pakistan +92 333 3411029

Try Halwa Puri

Another popular breakfast item you must try when you visit Pakistan is halwa puri. To be fair, the dish is so common, it’ll probably be offered to you at some point without you even trying! The dish consists of a puri—a leavened, hollow flatbread that puffs up when it’s fried—along with a flavorful pickled dish called achar, chana (chickpeas), aloo (potatoes), and a sugary semolina dish called halwa.

I ate this dish multiple times over my twelve days in Pakistan, and one of my favorites was at Dilpasand Sweets, Bakers & Nimkoz in Karachi. Just watching the puris be prepared is a spectacle—roughly a dozen guys flatten the puri dough and toss them into a huge vat of bubbling oil, one after another!

The puris puff up and cook in just ten to fifteen seconds. They’re flaky and soft, as opposed to the crispier puris many people may be used to. The texture works well for this variation, which combines the sweet halwa, savory chana and aloo, and sour achar.

I suggest trying the puri with each dish separately and then start mixing and matching to see which combinations you enjoy the most. They were all extremely tasty, but the halwa was a step above the others. It’s one of my favorite sweets on Earth, and having some is one of the best things to do in Karachi, Pakistan.

Dilpasand Sweets, Bakers & Nimkoz Shahrah-e-Jahangir Road Federal B Area Block 7   Gulberg Town, Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan +92 21 111376376

Explore the Biggest Fish Market in Karachi

Clifton Beach isn’t the only point of interest along Karachi’s Arabian Sea coast. There, you’ll also find Karachi Fish Natural harbour, the largest fish market in the city. Roughly 90% of the seafood and exports in Pakistan pass through this bustling, chaotic seaside marketplace.

You can go for a ride on a boat if you want, but the real action is on dry land. That’s where you’ll see the fish vendors, who sell freshly caught kingfish, red snapper, barracuda, grouper, prawns, crabs, tuna, and more.  

Best of all, you can either buy the fish to take home with you, or you can take it to one of the karachi harbour area’s restaurants for them to cook for you!

My guides Furqan and Shehroze and I bought a dhotar fish and kingfish and some prawns. We took them to Rashid Sea Food Fish Counter, where they made kebabs out of the kingfish, grilled the dhotar, and made two prawn dishes: grilled prawns and prawn karahi.

To say these were some of the best south asian seafood dishes I’ve ever eaten wouldn’t do them justice. The prawn karahi was spicy, oily, and succulent, with a kick of ginger, fresh vegetables, and hot peppers. It was perfect with the roti they gave us on the side.

I also adored the chunky, meaty kingfish kebabs with the pepper sauce. The dhotar, or gunter fish, had a deceptively spicy masala on it, which crept up on me after a few bites. Even though it was grilled, it was still perfectly juicy and tender.

Trust me, Karachi Fish Harbour is a must for any foodie. It’s one of the best things you can do in Karachi, Pakistan, and is one of the best places to have a true local experience!

Try Anda Parathas at Dhamthal Sweets, Bakers and Nimco

The world of Indian and Pakistani flatbread is nearly as diverse as South Asian cuisine itself. Most Westerners know about naan, but remain at least somewhat unfamiliar with roti, kulcha, chapati, appam, and one of my personal favorites, parathas. Parathas also come in many varieties, and one I fell in love with in Karachi is the anda paratha at Dhamthal Sweets, Bakers and Nimco.

Located just a few blocks from Dilpasand, this is another favorite haunt among locals. Anda parathas are essentially egg parathas—parathas baked with an egg and masala mixture brushed on top. The result is a crispy, flavorful, and golden brown flatbread, which they serve with fried eggs.

The anda-paratha-and-egg combination is remarkable. The different textures of the egg with the chewy, flaky paratha are absolutely mouthwatering. Enjoying it with the creamy, milky, spice-filled chai was the perfect way to cap off a breakfast tour. Easily one of the top things you must do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Dhamthal Sweets, Bakers and Nimco Gulshan-E-Ali ، No 2 Ayesha manzil Federal B Area Block 7   Karachi, 75950, Pakistan +92 21 36330775

Enjoy Haleem at Karachi Haleem

There are a number of places in Karachi where you can enjoy a local favorite called haleem. This thick, pasty stew typically contains meat, lentil, and grains, but has many variations throughout Southern Asia and the Middle East. The best spot in town to try some is Karachi Haleem, a local favorite on Burns Road.

At Karachi Haleem, you can get two different varieties—chicken and beef—so, naturally, I got both! They came with naan; a sweet rice dish called zarda; and several toppings including mint, chilies, and fried onions.

I recommend trying the haleem by itself first, so you can get a sense of its flavor and texture before adding the toppings and naan. The chicken haleem with the mint and chilies was unique, tasty, and satisfying, and the crispy fried onions added a nice acidity.

The beef haleem, which Furqan told me is his favorite, was even thicker and richer than the chicken. It was full of chilies and masalas that all worked in conjunction with one another. I honestly couldn’t get enough of it. As much as I enjoyed the chicken, I liked the beef even more!

The orange-hued zarda was very sweet but also had a nice herbal flavor. It was a nice dessert and palate cleanser. Best of all, this delicious meal for two only cost 440 rupees, or about $3 USD. It’s a cheap way to fill yourself up and among the top things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Karachi Haleem Pak Mansion, Burns Road Shahrah-e-Liaquat, Saddar   Karachi, 75950, Pakistan   +92 21 32633584

Explore Empress Market

As you may already know, Pakistan was once part of India before it broke off and became its own country. Before then, India was occupied and controlled by Great Britain from 1858 until 1947—the year India gained its independence and the year Pakistan was formed. Landmarks from this period, known as the British Raj, still remain throughout both countries. One of them is Empress Market in the Saddar Town locality.

This bustling, old-school bazaar resides in a large, beautiful British-style building and dates back to 1889. There, you’ll find vendors selling vegetables, fruits, spices, chilies, pickled achar, clothing, cooking oils, children’s toys, and much more.

The vendors are incredibly warm and friendly and may even let you sample some of their goods before you buy them. One of the most unique vendors there will extract oil from any seeds, nuts, or coconuts you bring him!  

And while Empress Market is actually quite small compared to others I’ve visited, it’s a must. Visiting is a fascinating peek into local life and will give you a greater understanding of what Karachi is all about. It’s definitely one of my favorite things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Empress Market Saddar near Rainbow Center Karachi, Karachi City Sindh 74400, Pakistan

Eat Dahi Baray at Fresco

The number of incredible dishes available in Karachi is seemingly never-ending. I ate dozens of incredible dishes during my time in the city, but one I highly recommend is dahi baray. Also known as dahi bhalla or dahi vada, this dish consists of fried lentil balls served in sweet yogurt with crispy, fried dough on top.

To try this dish, head over to Fresco Sweets on Burns Road, where you’ll find cooks preparing this snack in a monstrous vat. The sweet and creamy yogurt, combined with the savory lentil balls, was exceptional. It’s cold and refreshing and is a great way to cool down after a heavy or spicy meal! One of my favorite things to do in Karachi, Pakistan, for sure!

Fresco Sweets Shahrah-e-Liaquat, near Aram Bagh Park Aram Bagh Burns Road Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan +92 21 32218926

Try Fire Paan

When you travel to Southern Asia, you’ll come across a number of curious treats that may seem odd or surprising to you if you’re a Westerner. None are more curious than fire paan, a version of the street food called paan.  

Regular paan consists of nuts, dried fruit, betel nut, and sometimes chocolate wrapped in a betel leaf. It serves as a palate cleanser, digestive, and breath freshener. Fire paan takes it a step further, as the vendor lights the mixture inside on fire and shoves the whole thing into your open mouth!

If you’re brave enough, head over to Panwaari to try this flaming treat. This version also contained ice and coconut, which made it very crunchy and cold. The flame gets extinguished the moment it enters your mouth, and within minutes of you chewing, you get an intense rush of energy! I’ve had it many times before and it never gets old. No list of the things to do in Karachi, Pakistan is complete without fire paan!

Panwaari 3rd St D.H.A Phase 6 Rahat Commercial Area   Phase 6 Defence Housing Authority Karachi, Karachi City Sindh 75500, Pakistan   +92 324 2336464

Enjoy Stuffed Naan at Cloud Naan

Nearly everyone in the Western world knows about naan, the soft, fluffy flatbread often eaten with butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. But how many of you know about stuffed naan? That’s what you’ll get if you head over to Cloud Naan, a fusion restaurant that has tons of inventive recipes on their menu.

I highly recommend their creamy tikka naan. This savory dish takes the naan you know and love, and stuffs it with a hearty, creamy mixture of chicken, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, onions, and spicy cream cheese. It’s crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside, and full of flavor. If that wasn’t enough, it also comes with a rich garlic mayo dipping sauce!

But if you’re more in the mood for dessert, never fear. Their hazelnut chocolate oreo naan is like a decadent dessert pizza you’ll get in Rome! It’s topped with a Nutella-like chocolate and hazelnut spread, and the Oreo cookie pieces inside are beyond amazing. Whatever you order, go there with an appetite!

Cloud Naan Shop No 4 & 5, Plot 5-E Bokhari Commerical No 1, Street 1 D.H.A Phase 6 Phase 6 Defence Housing Authority Karachi, Karachi City Sindh 75500, Pakistan   +92 21 35850174

Dine at Kolachi Restaurant

Although street food reigns supreme in Karachi, there are also some incredible fine dining options. One of them is Kolachi Restaurant, an enormous beachside restaurant with a massive, multi-level outdoor terrace.  

You’ll find spectacle after spectacle inside, from the chicken chargha stacked vertically to the over 200 cooks in the kitchen. But my favorite thing about the restaurant is their outdoor seating, which overlooks the Arabian Sea.

Food-wise, it’s hard to go wrong. Whether you go with their creamy chicken makhani handi with roghni naan, the mutton chops, the Afghani boti, or something else, you will leave satisfied. The Afghani boti, in particular, was fatty, meaty, and one of the best lamb dishes I’ve ever eaten.

You can also try savory potatoes and vegetables, as well as grilled chilies. Pair the carrots, zucchini, and asparagus with the meat dishes for a meaty and fresh bite with some naan. Don’t forget to wash it all down with their pure, fresh apple juice. It’s the perfect way to cap off your meal!

Kolachi Restaurant Ocean Towers, 5 Th Khayaban-e-Iqbal Block 9 Clifton Karachi, Karachi City Sindh 75600, Pakistan +92 21 111 111 001

Stay at the Hotel Excelsior Karachi

I recommend staying in Karachi for at least three days. Of course, to make the most of your visit and ensure convenient access to the city’s attractions, you’ll need a place to lay your head at night. There’s no better spot in town than the Hotel Excelsior Karachi in Saddar Saddar Town, conveniently located not only for exploring the vibrant city but also offering easy accessibility to Jinnah International Airport for a seamless and stress-free travel experience.

The hotel is centrally located in the shopping district, so it’s within just a few minutes’ walk from malls, shopping streets, parks, museums, and movie theatres. You can also enjoy local, Chinese, and Continental favorites in their on-site restaurant.  

The rooms inside are spacious and modern. They come decked out with a workstation, couch, TV, mini-fridge, and a lockbox. You’ll also have a large, comfortable bed and a clean, sleek bathroom. Staying there is one of the best things to do in Karachi, Pakistan!

Hotel Excelsior Karachi 4, Plot Number SB 21 Sarwar Shaheed Rd Saddar Saddar Town Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan +92 21 35631751

Try Gappa Ghotala

If you get hungry while you’re out exploring the Clifton neighborhood, stop inside Mirchili. This popular chain has several locations in the city and sells a number of snack food favorites. My guide Furqan took me there specifically to try their gappa ghotala, which is a giant, crispy puri stuffed with lentils, chickpeas, yogurt, cilantro, three different chutneys, and crispy noodles called sev.

It’s similar to dahi puri, the creamier cousin of pani puri, which contains yogurt instead of pani. The gappa ghotala is sweet, bitter, and salty all at the same. The crunch of the sev and fried dough, and the velvety smoothness of the yogurt, are incredible.  

If you still have some room in your belly after the gappa ghotala, you can also build your own dahi puris there as well. I highly recommend it! You get to fill them to your specifications. I personally loved the tamarind chutney with the yogurt. The savory coriander, masala, and chickpeas balanced it out perfectly. A must-try when you’re in Karachi!

Mirchili Plot 10, Zone C – Block 7 Zone C Block 7 Clifton Karachi, Karachi City Sindh 75600, Pakistan +92 300 8150831

BONUS: Have a Pani Puri Challenge

It’s not a trip to South Asia without some pani puri! Probably my favorite street food dish of all-time, pani puri consists of a small, hollow ball of fried, leavened dough called a puri. The ball is then punctured and filled with a mixture of potatoes, chickpeas, vegetables, chutneys, and a spice-rich water called pani.

Because pani puri is a bite-sized snack, it makes it perfect for eating challenges. I had attempted a few pani puri challenges—both against myself and against friends—before and had a great time with them. So my friend Alizeh from Manaky set up another for me and my guides Furqan and Shehroze in her backyard!

The pani puris themselves were incredible, from the aloo filling to the chickpeas to the crispy puri. The pani was also extremely flavorful and made it one of my favorite challenges so far! If you’d like to see who won our challenge, please check it out below.

Having a pani puri challenge is among the top things you can do in Karachi, Pakistan. It’s a fun way to immerse yourself in the food culture of the region with a delicious snack!

BONUS: Enjoy a Pakistani Haircut Experience

I’ve gotten my hair cut in many places around the world, from my hometown of Miami to the city I called home for over a year, Barcelona. But the haircuts in South Asia are on another level, as they usually also include full shaves, a washing, and relaxing back and head massages. You can’t beat them!

If you’re in need of some pampering in Karachi, head over to King’s Hair Dresser in the center of town near Empress Market.   My barber there gave me the experience of a lifetime, starting with a head massage and giving me a clean head shave.

Then, he applied oil to my head and used his fingertips to massage deep into my skull. He then worked his way down to the tight and tense muscles in my neck, shoulders, and back. Before he finished up, he even massaged my arms, hands, and even my eyebrows.  

The whole experience only cost me 300 rupees, or $1.94 USD, which is over $20 less than what I’d pay at home in Miami for just a haircut. It’s an amazing bargain, and you’ll leave with any tenseness in your head, body, and hands gone!

I had heard many positive things about Karachi long before I touched down there. Everything I’d heard from fellow travelers turned out to be true. The city is bustling and alive, and the locals are some of the friendliest people I’ve met while traveling. The hospitality was on another level and was only eclipsed by the quality of the food, which makes my mouth water every time I think about it. If you want to experience the best things to do in Karachi, book a trip to Pakistan today!

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Essay On Problems Of Karachi – The City Of Lights (200 & 500 Words)

Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, faces numerous problems that have made life difficult for its residents. One of the major problems is the deteriorating law and order situation. Crime, violence, and terrorism are rampant, making it challenging to maintain peace and stability. This has created a sense of fear and insecurity among the citizens.

Essay On Problems Of Karachi 200 words

Another issue is the inadequate supply of necessities like water, electricity, and gas. Karachi is known for its scorching heat, and the frequent power outages and water shortages only add to the people’s misery. Furthermore, the lack of proper infrastructure has led to traffic congestion, making commuting a nightmare for the residents.

The pollution level in Karachi is also alarming, with the air and water quality being severely affected. The city produces enormous waste, often in landfills, causing environmental hazards.

Education and healthcare are other significant challenges facing Karachi. Despite having several schools and hospitals, the quality of education and healthcare is below par, and medical treatment costs are high.

In conclusion, the problems facing Karachi are numerous and complex. The government needs to take immediate and effective steps to address these issues, improve the living conditions of its residents, and restore the city’s glory.

Essay On Problems Of Karachi 500 words

Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, is facing many problems affecting its citizens’ lives in numerous ways. Despite being the economic hub of Pakistan , the city is grappling with a host of issues ranging from infrastructure to security and health to education. In this essay, we will take a closer look at some of the problems of Karachi and their impact on the lives of its citizens.

One of the most pressing issues in Karachi is the state of its infrastructure. The city is notorious for its congested roads, broken footpaths, and dilapidated buildings. The transportation system is in shambles, with buses and trains running behind schedule, and the lack of proper public transport has forced many residents to rely on their vehicles. The result is a massive traffic jam that makes commuting to work or school a nightmare.

Another issue plaguing Karachi is the high crime rate. The city is known for being unsafe, and street crime, burglary, and car theft are common. The police force is often criticized for its inability to curb crime, and many citizens feel left to fend for themselves. As a result, many people live in fear, and the lack of security has deterred foreign investment.

The health sector in Karachi is also in a sorry state. The city lacks adequate medical facilities, and many hospitals are overcrowded and understaffed. The shortage of doctors and nurses has resulted in long waiting times, and patients often have to wait hours to receive treatment. This has led to an increase in the mortality rate, particularly among children and the elderly.

The education system in Karachi is also facing numerous challenges. Government schools are often overcrowded, and the quality of education is poor. Many schools lack basic facilities such as clean drinking water, sanitation, and electricity. As a result, many parents are forced to send their children to private schools, often unaffordable for the poor. This has created a stark divide between the rich and the poor and contributed to the rising illiteracy rate.

The environmental degradation of Karachi is another issue that has serious consequences. The city grapples with issues like air and water pollution, deforestation, and waste disposal. The unchecked growth of industries has led to air pollution, while the lack of proper sewage systems has resulted in contaminated water. The unplanned expansion of the city has also led to deforestation, further aggravating the situation.

In conclusion, Karachi is a city that is facing a multitude of problems. The issues discussed above are just a few of the many challenges that the city is grappling with. The government needs to take urgent action to address these issues and provide its citizens with a better quality of life. There is a need for a comprehensive plan that addresses issues such as infrastructure, security, health, education, and the environment. Only then can Karachi truly become the thriving metropolis that it has the potential to be.

Here are some possible FAQs about the city of Karachi:

• What is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh? Karachi is the capital city of Sindh province.
• What is the population and rank of Karachi in Pakistan and the world? Karachi has a population of over 20 million and is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world.
• What is the estimated GDP of Karachi as of 2021? Karachi has an estimated GDP of over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021.
• What are some of the nicknames of Karachi? Karachi is also known as City of the Quaid, Paris of the East, City of Lights, and Bride of the Cities.
• What is the name of the international airport and rapid transit system in Karachi? Karachi has Jinnah International Airport (KHI) and Karachi Breeze as its airport and transit system.
• What are some of the ancient names of Karachi? Some of the ancient names of Karachi are Krokola, Barbarikon, Nawa Nar, Rambagh, Kurruck, Karak Bander, Auranga Bandar, Minnagara, Morontobara, Kalachi, Kalachi-jo-Goth, Banbhore, Debal, Barbarice, and Kurrachee.
• What are some of the archaeological sites in Karachi from the Indus Valley civilisation period? Some of the archaeological sites in Karachi from the Indus Valley civilisation period are Ahladino, Pir Shah Jurio, and Banbhore.
• Who was the first Muslim conqueror who led his force into Sindh from the port of Debal in Karachi? Muhammad bin Qasim was the first Muslim conqueror who led his force into Sindh from the port of Debal in Karachi in AD 712.
• What was the name of the place where Alexander camped to prepare a fleet for Babylon after his campaign in the Indus Valley? The name of the place where Alexander camped to prepare a fleet for Babylon was Krokola, which is located near modern Karachi.
• What are some of the major landmarks and attractions in Karachi? Some of the major landmarks and attractions in Karachi are Mazar-e-Quaid (the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah), Hawke’s Bay Beach, Frere Hall, Karachi Port Trust Building, Mohatta Palace, Port of Karachi, National Museum of Pakistan, Clifton Beach, Empress Market, and Karachi Zoo.

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Sana Mursleen is a student studying English Literature at Lahore Garrison University (LGU). With her love for writing and humor, she writes essays for Top Study World. Sana is an avid reader and has a passion for history, politics, and social issues.

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Blood on the street: violence, crime, and policing in Karachi

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Introduction

With 56 percent of the world’s population today living in urban spaces and 70 percent projected to do so by 2050,[1] major cities of the world play an ever-larger role in the 21 st century global system, power distribution, and public policies. Decisions of city governments significantly influence major transnational issues—from climate change, global financial and trade patterns, to poverty alleviation, disease mitigation and refugee flows. More than ever, a country’s governing capacity and the legitimacy of its government are shaped by how it suppresses crime and delivers order in urban areas, a major challenge for many countries.[2] Many cities in Africa and Latin America struggle to deliver effective public security, despite receiving significant international assistance. Much less policy and academic focus has been devoted to urban public order management in Asia, including specifically Karachi, even though the city is a major world megapolis, a significant global hub of legal and illegal trade, and source of transnational and local violence, including terrorism. 

Based on fieldwork I conducted in Karachi in 2016 and supplemented by subsequent remote interviews, this article analyzes the sources of insecurity and violence in Karachi since the 1990s, focusing especially on the period between 2008 and 2023. Through interviews with security and police officials, military and paramilitary forces officers, politicians, civil society and business community representatives, members of criminal gangs, and security experts, the article assesses the effectiveness of anti-crime measures adopted in the city. Examining what has worked well and what policies have been deficient is a valuable source of lessons for other countries. It is also important because crime and terrorism are again rising in Karachi, the city’s residents are demanding better public safety.

For decades, and intensely so over the past twenty years, Karachi has struggled with violence, insecurity, and criminality. The city governments as well as Pakistan’s national authorities have at times either yielded or purposefully outsourced the delivery of order, safety, and other public goods to nonstate armed actors. The provision of these essential services by Karachi’s criminal and militant groups has thus regularly outcompeted their provision by the state, with the city’s nonstate armed actors hence acquiring significant political capital with Karachi’s residents.

From 2008 to 2015, the megapolis of between 20 million and 25 million people and Pakistan’s most important economic engine, experienced a particularly intense wave of violence. Homicides surpassed 2,000 a year, with war-like firearm exchanges on the streets. Extortions and kidnappings skyrocketed. Both the poor and the affluent were significantly affected. Many businesses shut down, and wealthy elites moved away. The local and federal government scrambled for a response.

For decades, police forces in Karachi have been under-resourced, incompetent, corrupt, politicized, and infiltrated by criminal groups. The justice system in the city—as well as nationally—suffers many deficiencies. Thus, to bring violence down, the local, state, and federal governments have repeatedly deployed official paramilitary forces to address the violence.

And indeed, in important ways, government policies did manage to suppress crucial aspects of violence, most importantly homicides. But other types of crime, terrorism, and militancy continue to be a challenge, and policing remains problematic and inadequate.[3] Moreover, the costs of the adopted law enforcement patterns have been severe in terms of civil liberties and human rights. The paramilitary forces, the Sindh Rangers, like the police in the city, turned out to be highly violent and perpetrated extensive and serious human rights violations.

In response to the criminal, political, ethnic, and terrorist violence, Karachi’s business community and civil society also mobilized. Going far beyond the civil society assistance to police forces found, for example, in Colombia’s Medellín, Brazil’s Sao Paulo, or Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez, Karachi’s business community established an essentially private police force with an extraordinary scope of activities. In contrast, the civil society activism emerged primarily against and as a result of the state repression of the Pashtun minority that suffered from law enforcement’s dragnets.

Yet a decade later, the paramilitary forces remain the principal policing force in the city. And their activities have gone far beyond their official mandate to combat violence. Supported by other law enforcement actors in the city, the Rangers have completely redesigned the political landscape of Karachi, selectively dismantling some political parties through the arrests of their members, while extra-legally empowering and privileging other parties. They have also increased their involvement in the city’s public management as well as its illegal economies, such as land grabbing and the criminalized delivery of services, including water.

Armed Security Karachi, Credit:  Benny Lin ,  CC BY-NC 2.0

The Context

Between 2010 and 2015, violence in Karachi reached dramatic levels. In 2012, 2,174 were reported killed;[4] escalating to a record 2,700 in 2013. These deaths included targeted killings by political parties; warfare by and among jihadists; and murders by organized crime groups, often linked to politicians and political parties. Compounding the sense of insecurity was a dramatic terrorist attack on Karachi’s airport in July 2014.[5] By 2017, homicides, targeted killings, terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and extortions perpetrated by non-state actors declined by as much as 90 percent in the various categories. What explains the decline?

For decades, Karachi has been experiencing a dramatic, uncontrolled population growth, expanding from a mere 435,0000 residents in the early 1940s to some 25 million today.[6] The city’s historic and changing ethnic composition and demographics have shaped its economic development, urban planning, and governance—as well as its instability, violence, and organized crime.

One facet of Karachi is its economic power. With its large financial, textile, and manufacturing sectors, Karachi generates approximately 50 percent of Pakistan’s economic revenue (about $290 billion annually) and 90 percent of the province of Sindh.[7] It also handles 95 percent of Pakistan’s foreign trade and 30 percent of its manufacturing. It is the seat of Pakistan’s economic elite, with 90 percent of the headquarters of Pakistani banks, financial institutions, and multinational corporations located in Karachi.[8]

Another facet of Karachi is its privation: Some 70 percent of Karachi residents are poor, with half of the population living in squatter settlements known as katchi abadis .[9] These informal settlements mostly lack pumped water, sewage, and formal legal electricity hookups.[10]

Karachi’s decades-long poor exclusionary governance has eviscerated the city’s planning, organizational capacities, and provision of public goods. Instead, the delivery of public goods has, to a large extent, become privatized. Both in the public and private domains, or when delivered by what Karachi residents call mafias —a combination of organized crime groups and politicians—the delivery of essential services is politicized. The deep ethnic rivalries generating community competition over legal and illegal rents and bureaucratic appointments have resulted in and often purposefully generated and utilized criminal and street violence.

Drivers of violence

Waves of violence in Karachi, including the 2010-2013 iteration, have been driven by multiple factors: inter-communal hostility provoked and exploited by the campaigns of ethnically-oriented politicians and political parties; violence by the state, exacerbated by the weakness of the city’s police; organized crime and political competition over illicit economies and the provision of public services in the city; and the belligerence of jihadi militants and terrorists.

Political Parties            

Much of Karachi’s violence results from the strategic use of violence by ethnically-based political parties to secure electoral votes, government appointments, and economic rents. Between 2007 and 2013, almost all of the city’s ethnic groups and their political parties engaged in violence against their political, ethnic, and business opponents, resulting in the deaths of over 7,000 people.[11]      

The political-ethnic violence has often taken place between the Mohajirs and the Sindhis and between the Mohajirs and the Pashtuns and Baloch. The Mohajirs (literally refugees) are the Urdu-speaking migrants from India and their descendants. The 1947 partition of India that gave birth to Pakistan resulted in millions of Mohajirs arriving in the city. Almost overnight their influx reversed the ethnic balance in the city, shrinking the percentage of the previously dominant Sindhis from 60 to 14 percent (and less than 10 percent today) and increasing the presence of the Mohajirs from a mere 6 percent to well over 54 percent.[12] The Mohajirs stacked the city’s government institutions and bureaucratic appointments with their ethnic brethren, creating deep-seated resentment of the Sindhis and setting up a perpetual battle between the city’s government and the Sindhi-dominated provincial government. The Sindhis are still dominant in the rural areas of the Sindh Province of which Karachi is the capital.

Federal politics have shaped Karachi’s endless ethnic rivalries. The 1970s government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, with his Pakistan People Party (PPP), favored the Sindhis, while the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988) sought to weaken the PPP by supporting the creation of a Mohajir political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).[13] General Pervez Musharraf similarly sought to use the MQM to subjugate the PPP.[14] Indeed, Pakistan’s military has applied the same rule-and-divide strategy in Karachi that it uses throughout the country—at various times using the MQM to undermine the PPP’s  attempt to weaken the military’s dominance of Pakistan’s politics and governance and at other times, such as in the 2010s and 2020s, turning on the MQM.

The political competition unleashed repeated violence in Karachi during the 1980s and 1990s as the Mohajirs sought to control governing structures and appointments – including, the lucrative Karachi Port Trust, Karachi Municipal Corporation and Karachi Development Authority—and the resulting patronage and votes. To obtain these rents and political capital, they often used street violence by armed wings.[15]

Since the 1980s, many Pakistani Pashtun migrants and Afghan refugees further altered Karachi’s ethnic balance and its power conflicts. By 2025, Pashtuns are projected to outnumber the Mohajirs,[16] yet they are the most politically and economically marginalized ethnic group in Karachi. While the Mohajir-Sindhi violence declined in the 1990s, ethnic violence escalated between the Mohajirs and Pashtuns and Balochs, particularly after the 2008 elections.[17]

In addition to having their own armed wings, the political parties established clientelistic relationships and alliances with organized crime groups to secure votes and engage in extortion and racketeering in the city, known in Karachi as the bhatta economy.

Illicit Economies, Criminal Groups, and Politics

As a crucial global port and gateway to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and a megacity of many unemployed, Karachi is also, not surprisingly, a significant hub of illicit economies and organized crime. The city’s crime economy overall is estimated at a $3 billion annually[18] and features drug trafficking,[19] arms smuggling, human smuggling, timber trafficking, extortion, gambling, and kidnapping as well as a variety of other predatory crimes.[20]  These illicit economies are to various degrees dominated by organized crime or militant groups.

The under-delivery and privatization of basic services have provided further opportunities for criminalization and violence as well as extensive connections to politics. Informal and outright illicit economies and extensive theft have emerged in land access, electricity and water delivery,[21] as well as transportation. These illicit economies are run by organized crime groups connected to politicians and political parties – networks to which Karachi residents refer to as “mafias.”

Access to land is a prime example of such politically-linked criminalization. Both public and private land is frequently stolen and usurped by criminals, politicians, and/or state agents such as the Sindh Rangers and the military, whether directly by them or through proxies for their benefit. It is also taken over the city’s many squatters.[22] Land has thus become the city’s most prized and contested commodity, with federal, provincial, and local land-owning agencies, military cantonments, corporate entities and formal and informal developers fighting for land rights.[23]

Public transportation is largely defunct. Medical services are equally underprovided, delivered to many by charities or Islamist parties and the political proxies of Jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (after state pressure renamed Jammat-ud-Dawa). In the political contestation surrounding the 2008 elections, the PPP and MQM used their political heft to get access for their clients to the city’s hospitals and clinics.[24] Meanwhile, the rich receive their medical treatment in Dubai, London, or the United States.

Many criminal groups in Karachi are ethnically based and have close, if complex, relations with the political party of their ethnicity. The Peoples Aman Committee (PAC) gang operating in the Lyari subdivision of Karachi is a prime example of these dynamics. For years, in addition to running its own criminal rackets such as drug trafficking and extortion, the PAC would also do some of the dirty work of its political patron, the PPP.  At the same time, the PAC sought to cultivate the Karachi’s top police officials and corrupt Sindh Rangers as well as business and political elite even while extorting them.[25]

But like many other criminal gangs and militant groups,[26] the PAC sought to build its political capital with local populations by investing some of its proceeds from its criminal activities in public welfare schemes.[27] Following a major 2011 battle with the Karachi police during which not just the PAC, but the entire Lyari subdivision were de facto starved in a siege, the PAC also came to distribute water and food to Lyari’s residents. It also regulated street crime in the subdivision by advancing its own rackets. Under the PAC rule, carjacking, cellphone snatching, and robberies decreased compared to previous periods and other parts of the city.[28] The PAC supported and sponsored NGOs seeking to bring hospitals and schools to Lyari, one symbolically located in a gang’s former torture house.[29] In contrast, between 2001 and 2008 when MQM’s political power was high during the presidency of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, nothing had been built in Lyari. The discrimination was a blatant retaliation by the Mohajir MQM against the Sindhis.

But with its own political capital rising, the PAC started chaffing at the bid of its political patron, the PPP. It began cutting significantly into the PPP’s electoral base and challenging its orders.[30] While once essentially subservient to the politicians, the PAC crime gang began dictating the terms to the PPP, such as by selecting its own PPP candidates for the subdivision. [31]

Jihadist Militancy and Sectarian Conflict

Multiple highly dangerous jihadist terrorist groups operate in the city, compete over turf and illicit rackets, fundraise, organize violent operations, and take shelter from operations by the Pakistani military during occasional periods when the military decides to confront some of them as opposed to mostly coddling them.[32] The anti-India and Kashmir-focused Laskhar-e-Tayyaba (LeT)/ Jammat-ud-Dawa (that carried out the 2008 attack on Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel and other sites and killed over 160 people) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (that, along w LeT, carried out the 2001 attack on India’s parliament) and the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have used the city as a crucial base for decades. They are extensively linked to the city’s many madrasas (Islamic schools). Sectarian violence between Pakistan’s predominant Sunni majority and Shia minority was unleashed in the 1980s by the Zia regime’s Islamization policies that patronized Deobandi extremist groups as a means of internal control and a counter to Shia mobilization after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Stoked by the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since, the sectarian contestation often explodes into violence in Karachi, where in 2012 and 2013, at least 100 sectarian killings took place each year.[33] After 9-11, Al Qaeda also used Karachi as a key operating area and killed the U.S. Wall Street Journal ’s correspondent Daniel Pearl there.

Among the more recent arrivals, about a decade and half ago, has been the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terrorist group displaced to Karachi as a result of Pakistan’s military operations in the province of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and previously autonomous tribal areas (now incorporated into KPK). As the presence of TTP in Karachi grew to some 8,000 members in 2013, so did violence.[34] Although also predominantly Pahstun, the TTP intensely focused violence on the anti-militant Pashtun party Awami National Party (ANP). By the end of 2013, the TTP’s violent actions had forced the ANP to close down 70 percent of its offices in the city.[35] In fact, in the runup to the 2013 elections, the TTP ratcheted up violence against all political parties that opposed it, attempting to prevent them from campaigning.[36]

In addition to targeting the ANP and other political parties, TTP also sought to take over various of the city’s illicit economies and rackets, such as land theft and control, and aggressively moved into extortion. Moving into extortion in revenue-rich Karachi allowed the TTP to move beyond inefficient bank robberies, one of its initial funding approaches. Neighborhoods, such as Lyari, became war zones and no-go zones for the state. Gang or jihadi takeovers of areas displaced male residents, leaving women without protection and economic livelihoods and subject to sexual violence.[37] In addition to fighting organized criminal groups for control over illicit rents, TTP hired local criminals for the same purpose and to finance jihad. In turn, criminals allied with TTP used the alliance to strengthen their hand against local police (mostly in on the illicit take) and criminal rivals.

Policy Responses    

Much of the state’s response to the post-2010 violence in Karachi, as has been the case historically as well, has centered on heavy-handed law enforcement and military crackdowns. Anti-crime socio-economic components or other structural and institutional reforms have been inadequate. Civil society mobilization has played a role in the policy responses, but at times, such mobilization has been heavily skewed toward the interests and safety of the elite.

Law Enforcement

In 2012 and 2013, the Karachi police force found itself unable to cope with the rising violence, extortion, jihadism, and sense of panic in the city. Out of a nominal police force of 29,000 officers, only some 8,000 worked at any one time.[38] Moreover, 162 police officers, including one of Karachi’s top counterterrorism officials, were killed in the city in the first part of 2013[39] severely undermining already poor morale. For decades, the police force in the city (as elsewhere in Pakistan) has also been subject to intense politicization, from the highest senior level appointments to beat cops. It tended to compensate for its lack of investigative and preventative capacities with brutality.

In September 2013, amidst the security crisis, Pakistan’s federal government authorized the deployment of 11,000 paramilitary Sindh Rangers to Karachi, replicating similar policy moves of the 1990s. Nominally under Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior, but following the military’s command, the Rangers were to focus on terrorism, political killings, extortion, and kidnapping for ransom.

Under the 2013 Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, made law in 2014 as the Protection of Pakistan Act,[40] the Rangers were given special powers and authorized to shoot-to-kill, shoot-on-sight, and to detain suspects for 90 days without charge. But they did not have any actual investigation and prosecution mandates, consigned to acting against in flagrante crimes and mounting deterrence patrolling. A subsequent anti-terrorism act, the December 2014 National Action Plan, also expanded the military’s role in internal policing. It shifted counterterrorism judicial processes to the opaque unaccountable military justice system and reversed the burden of proof for alleged terrorists: The accused now had to prove that they were not terrorists.[41] Although the operation was to be time-bound, the Rangers’ mandate was repeatedly extended.

Officially, the law enforcement efforts in Karachi were defined as a targeted operation focusing on a list of 450 designated killers (many hitmen for political parties), terrorists, kidnappers, and leaders of extortion rings. Quickly, however, the law enforcement actions became a much broader dragnet scheme. Between September 2013 and mid-2018, the Rangers claimed to have arrested and handed over to police or the courts almost 11,000 people in 14,327 raids.[42] Yet, many detainees were released without charge; others disappeared, perhaps still held in detention or killed.

The police supplemented those operations with its own repression. The police chief during the Rangers’ initial operations, Superintendent Anwar Ahmed known as Rao Anwar, for example, was notorious for his bloodlust for encounter killings.[43] Senior police officials were also allegedly offering cash rewards to subordinates for extrajudicial killings. In 2017 alone, Karachi police killed “184 criminals and 7,373 terrorists” in 480 police encounters.[44]

The law enforcement operations also sought to establish Ranger and law enforcement presence in areas that became no-go places for the police, such as Lyari. While putting heavy pressure on some criminal gangs, the operations tended to be repressive, abusive, and indiscriminate, often cordoning off large areas, mounting extensive and aggressive house searches, and detaining scores of people. Residents who dared protest against the heavy-handedness or other problematic policies, such as wholesale intimidation of fishermen by law enforcement actors or government seizures of coastal land, were labeled supporters of Lyari gangs or terrorist groups and arrested as well.[45]

MQM became a primary target of the Rangers’ operation. Often without diligent investigations and evidence, the law enforcement forces sought to destroy the armed wings of the party and the party itself through extrajudicial killings and disappearances.[46] Between 2013 and 2017, the bodies of at least 70 MQM male activists were found and more than 120 went missing.[47] The PPP was also targeted, with its members, including prominent officials, arrested on various charges, though to a lesser degree than those of the MQM.

The counterterrorism operations also showed selectivity, prioritizing anti-Pakistan, but not anti-India terrorist groups. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, al Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were principally targeted. After LeJ reduced its attacks against India and instead began killing Pakistani security officials, it also came into the Rangers’ crosshairs. Other groups, such as the bloody sectarian Sunni Ahle Sunant Wal Jammat (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) and LeT/JD were let off the hook.

But even with its policy selectivity, the Rangers’ overall dragnet approach compounded Pakistan’s long-standing problem: the weakness of prosecution. With the police lacking investigative capacities and the Rangers legal authorization for investigations, torture became a frequent method to extract confessions.  In response to complaints by human rights groups, the Rangers and police claimed that they had no alternative but to kill the alleged terrorists and criminals because the courts would free them otherwise.[48]

Overwhelmed, under-resourced, politicized, and militarized, Pakistan’s justice system regularly features cases not adjudicated for years and sometimes even decades. A popular saying goes: “In Pakistan, you hire a lawyer and buy a judge.”  Only rarely do courts take up human rights protection issues or indict police or Ranger officials for even egregious human rights violations.

While the Rangers’ dragnet was under way, no adequate attempt to reform the police in Karachi or in Sindh was undertaken. Individual police commanders were merely reshuffled among posts, rarely altogether dismissed. In May 2016, the Sindh government authorized the recruitment of 8,000 additional police officers for Karachi to be trained by the army, but only a small portion ended up, in fact, recruited. Many top officers and beat cops continued to embrace highly repressive ways.

While state violence shot up, the violence perpetrated by nonstate actors declined dramatically and swiftly.Targeted killings diminished from 965 in 2013 to two in 2018; reported extortion cases from 1,524 in 2013 to 31 in 2018; and kidnapping for ransom from 174 in 2013 to five in 2018.[49] From January to April 2019, Karachi experienced 12 targeted killings.[50] Yet, the Rangers and police continued to mount raids, such as in Lyari in May 2019. Terrorist incidents also decreased—from a 2015 peak of 199 (when TTP responded to counterterrorism actions with intensified aggression of its own) to 16 in 2016 and zero in 2017.[51] Two significant terrorist incidents, nonetheless, took place in Karachi in 2018.

A problematic side-effect of the operations was the Rangers’ takeover of the city’s various illicit economic rackets. Widespread allegations emerged about the Rangers’ and police role in extortion and illegal appropriation of valuable resources, such as real estate, in their areas of operation.[52] Vendors who had previously paid extortion fees to the MQM now complained that they had to pay much higher rates to the Rangers and police.[53] The Rangers also expanded their already extensive involvement in Karachi’s lucrative water management and illicit water economy, at times alleged to usurp large quantities of water and charge predatory rates.[54] Yet despite the Rangers’ official role in the city’s water management, public access did not improve and by May 2019, Karachi was again in the midst of another water crisis.

The Rangers’ presence in Karachi also became an official drain on the city’s budgets as the Rangers also demanded larger government allocations for their salaries, equipment, schools, and health care.

Civil Society Mobilization

In response to the violence engulfing the city and debilitating business activities of Pakistan’s economic juggernaut, the civil society mobilization featured a mix of business community efforts to protect its economic interests and broader civil rights activism. But the business community’s response went far beyond assisting law enforcement forces in beefing up their capacity as has occurred in Mexico’s Cuidad Juárez, Tijuana, or Monterrey, or Colombia’s Medellín, for example.[55] The business community’s actions amounted essentially to the creation of a private police force for the elite, supplementing and supplanting Karachi’s police. While many elites around the world react to intense urban violence by hiring private security companies, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), a de facto private elite police unit, stands in a class of its own.                   

The Business Community Response: Private Police and Applause for Repression

Since its establishment in 1989, the CPLC has focused on countering extortion and kidnapping of Karachi’s rich,[56] successfully tackling Karachi’s extortion rackets targeting the affluent during the 1990s and since. However, like other institutions in Karachi, the CPLC was not able to withstand the intensification of political and ethnic divisions in the city.[57] Its effectiveness made it a valuable asset for the city’s political class to seek to appropriate. Thus, in the second half of the 1990s, the CPLC became closely aligned with the MQM.[58]

Even so, the CPLC developed and maintained a highly organized and sophisticated system for tracking criminal activity.[59] Extraordinarily, police stations report their crime statistics to the CPLC on a daily basis. The CPLC has had those statistics computerized since the 1990s, unlike those police who still frequently handle pieces of paper. With a paid staff of 100 and an additional 80 volunteers, the CPLC also has access to cellphone company data, knowing which phone numbers are registered, and claiming to have the capacity to authorize cell phone tracking.[60]   

Not only does the CPLC support the police and cooperate closely with the Rangers, but it also conducts independent investigations and surveillance, such as during anti-kidnapping operations that target the affluent and their political clients, as well as in some homicide investigations. From 1989 to 2017, the CPLC claimed to have handled over 1,300 cases.[61]

The CPLC’s success has consistently won the accolades—and financial support—of the business community. Karachi’s business community has equally praised the military’s and Rangers’ operations in Karachi, despite their extensive human rights abuses.[62]

Pashtun Human Rights Movement

The post-2016 decline in terrorist violence and the weakening of TTP in Karachi did not end the dragnet repression of Pakistani law enforcement against the Pashtun community in the city. Throughout 2017, many Pashtun residents of the city continued to be treated heavy-handedly as terrorist suspects.  In January 2018, four young Pashtun men were killed by Karachi police in an encounter killing and subsequently accused of belonging to a militant group.[63] The operation might easily have turned out to be one of many such encounter killings, but this time, it set off a large-scale human rights mobilization by the Pashtun community—the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM).

The PTM sought to bring some accountability to the pervasive impunity of Pakistani law enforcement forces. For example, in the wake of widespread outrage at the killings, Police Superintendent Anwar Rao was finally indicted on murder charges for his decades-long role in extrajudicial killings and arrested. Yet in January 2023, he was acquitted.[64]

Manipulating Politics: The Elections of Imran Khan

During the post-2013 Karachi operations, Pakistan’s military and its subordinate agencies, such as the Sindh Rangers, took to heart the criticism of their 1990s operations—unless politics in Karachi were cleaned up and defanged of their violent proxies, violence would return. But instead of diligently prosecuting political connections to murders, Pakistan’s military and the Rangers set out to destroy the MQM.

At first, through 2017, the military and Rangers sought to split the MQM and create a new political power in the city around the former MQM mayor Mustafa Kamal. The Rangers and police allegedly pressured MQM members, operatives, and councilors to defect to Mustafa Kamal. Scores of MQM members released from the Rangers’ sometimes prolonged detention, in fact, joined Kamal’s new political party.[65]

But when Kamal failed to attract MQM’s political base and outmaneuver its machinery, the military threw its support behind a different politician in Karachi—Imran Khan. A former world-renowned cricket player and an Oxford playboy, Imran Khan entered Pakistani politics in the 1990s, refashioning himself as a born-again Muslim, religious conservative, and opponent of U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States in counterterrorism operations. For two decades, his political party, Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), won barely a seat in regional or national elections. But by 2013, Imran Khan’s Pakistan’s PTI gained sufficient support to become Karachi’s second largest party.

During the July 2018 national elections in Pakistan, the military did everything possible to support the PTI and Imran Khan and sabotage the chances of its political rivals.[66] Working also through the Rangers, it put pressure on various politicians and party operatives to defect to the PTI. The military warned journalists and media outlets to cover the PTI, not the MQM.[67] A 2017 gerrymandering census, in which soldiers went door-to-door with census workers, undercounted the city’s population by between five and seven million. Ultimately, the PTI won 116 of the 272 votes in the National Assembly and, as the largest party, formed the government, with Imran Khan becoming prime minister. In Karachi, the PTI, assisted by the Rangers’ muscle, won 14 out of the city’s 21 National Assembly seats—a bruising defeat for the MQM.

 Four years later in 2022, the Pakistani military became frustrated with Imran Khan and helped to orchestrate a no-confidence vote that removed him from power, with various serious legal proceedings against Khan ensuing.

Anti-Crime Socio-Economic Measures

Unlike in various Latin American cities that have grappled with intense criminal violence, no specific anti-crime socio-economic policies accompanied the law enforcement measures. After his election, Imran Khan did promise a series of socio-economic policies to develop Karachi, his critical electoral base. In March 2019, he designated $1.15 billion for the city’s development, specifically ten public transportation projects and seven water delivery projects.[68] Immediately, however, questions arose as to how equitably the projects would be distributed, and whether their implementation would follow Karachi’s typical pattern of rewarding one’s constituents at the expense of ethnic and political rivals.

Meanwhile, Karachi’s MQM mayor, Waseen Akhtar, set out to change Karachi’s Economist ranking as the fourth least livable city in the world[69] by bulldozing Karachi’s informal Empress Market—with the justification that its informal stores and hawkers encroached on public and private property. Across Karachi, some 20 informal markets with over 11,000 shops and stalls were destroyed, affecting the livelihoods of tens of thousands in just two months, between November 2018 and January 2019.[70] Those measures were emblematic of the troubled approaches to socio-economic development in the megapolis. As long as Karachi remains “the drain of Pakistan, where all the poor and displaced wash up,” as a Pakistani security analyst put it,[71] anti-crime socio-economic measures will be drowned by the larger forces of Karachi’s inequality and discriminatory politics.

Did the Outcomes of the Anti-Crime Policies Hold?

Four years later, in 2023, the Sindh Rangers are still deployed to Karachi as the principal anti-crime security agency. Murders have remained at a fraction of their peak a decade earlier—393 in 2021[72] and 387 in 2022.[73] In the first two months of 2023, 29 people were murdered.[74]

In 2022, the Rangers claimed to have conducted 269 operations against terrorism, target killings, kidnapping, and extortion, arresting 65 high-value targets.[75] Many of the key criminal and terrorist groups that had been the key focus for the Rangers in 2013 were still so in 2022: Lyari gangs, MQM, and TTP.

The Rangers also expanded their role in anti-drug operations. But the counternarcotics actions have centered on seizures, rather than a systematical dismantling of drug trafficking networks. Even though Karachi’s drug networks are far less violent than drug trafficking groups in Latin America, they remain a source of homicides and violence. Moreover, the changes to the city’s drug markets—namely, the rise of methamphetamine consumption and trafficking in Karachi, part and parcel of the synthetic drugs revolution sweeping drug markets around the world – pose further risks of homicides spiking as the city’s lucrative drug market is being reshuffled. Significantly, in 2022, the amount of seized crystal methamphetamine (134 kilograms) just slightly surpassed that of heroin (129 kilograms).[76]

Furthermore, in a post-COVID pattern seen around the world, street crime shot up significantly in Karachi after 2020, giving rise to popular dissatisfaction and demands for police action. In 2022, the CPLC, still going strong, reported over 78,000 street crime incidents, noting that the actual number was likely higher, as Karachi residents remained reluctant to approach police and register complaints.[77] In the first 80 days of 2023, the number was 14,000.[78]

Yet once again, Karachi and Sindh authorities, caught up in inter-party rivalries, did not mount intense efforts to reform and strengthen Karachi’s struggling and troubled police. Even though the Sindh Safety and Police Complaints Commission, established in 2019 to improve police accountability and required by law to meet once a month under the chairmanship of the Sindh home minister, remained moribund,[79] the PPP ruling Sindh did not find any major issues with the police.[80] Instead of pushing for meaningful police reform, the PTI wanted to further expand the Sindh Rangers’ extensive powers.[81] Although new legal authorities were not granted, the paramilitary Rangers did enlarge their focus on street crime, including drug retail, extortion, and robberies. In 2022, they reported to have mounted 2,292 such operations.[82]

Karachi’s law enforcement agencies primarily embraced technological fixes, defining an increased use of CCTV cameras as key to controlling crime in the city.[83] But in September 2022, the police launched a special motorcycle branch—the Shaheen Force—to counter the many robberies and killings conducted from motorcycles.

TTP’s attacks in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan also went up significantly after 2020. Some of the increased activity preceded the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.[84] But despite the Taliban’s repeated promises not to allow terrorist attacks out of Afghanistan’s territory,[85] TTP has been able to translate its safe havens in eastern Afghanistan into bases for mounting more attacks. Although Pakistan hoped the Taliban would simply shut down TTP, the Taliban, acting principally through the Haqqanis, have instead repeatedly chosen to attempt to broker ceasefires with TTP.[86] But they have not held, and because of its internal entanglements with and debts to the TTP and multiple high costs of fighting the TTP, the Afghan Taliban has not resorted to military action against the TTP despite pressure from Pakistan.[87] In Karachi, in addition to increasing terrorist attacks, including a daring hit against police headquarters in March 2023, the TTP also significantly increased its extortion rackets.[88]

Conclusions       

After 2013, law enforcement forces in Karachi were able to significantly suppress a major flareup of homicides and criminal violence, compounded by political violence, ethnic rivalries, and terrorism. Yet the law enforcement response that centered on paramilitary forces also became the source of violence and human rights violations. Moreover, this pattern of policing also blatantly interfered with and reorganized the political organization of the city—dismantling the existing dominant party and engineering the rise of another political party. While the city’s civil society mobilized in response to the violence, a deeper renegotiation of the flawed social contract remains elusive.

The law enforcement response also succeeded in Karachi only in the narrow sense: suppressing certain types of violence, such as importantly homicides, and terrorist attacks. But it did not fully manage to dismantle criminal networks or illicit economies. The extensive and long-term presence of the Rangers in Karachi and the impunity with which they operated allowed them to muscle in on the city’s illegal economies.

Indeed, while reshuffling the crime and violence market, the anti-crime policies in Karachi failed to include an effective and necessary police reform and address the underlying causes of violence, such as deficiencies and inequity in access to water, infrastructure, and other services. The lack of such services not only alienates local populations from the state, but also continually provides fertile ground for criminal groups to remain intertwined with the city’s bureaucracies and politics.

[1] “Urban Development,” The World Bank, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview .

[2] See, for example, Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Bringing the State to the Slum: Confronting Organized Crime and Urban Violence in Latin America,” Brookings Latin America Initiative Paper Series , December 2011, https://www.brookings.edu/research/bringing-the-state-to-the-slum-confronting-organized-crime-and-urban-violence-in-latin-america/ ; and Antonio Sampaio, “Conflict Expansion to Cities.” Armed Conflict Survey . Vol. 5, no. 1, 2019: pp. 21–27.

[3] The first part of this article draws on Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Shoot First, Ask Later: Violence and Anti-crime Policies in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez and Pakistan’s Karachi,” in Michael Glass, Taylor Seybolt, and Phil Williams, Eds., Urban Violence, Resilience and Security: Governance Responses in the Global South . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022: pp. 138–159.

[4] Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), statistics on killings in Karachi, provided to author by the CPLC during her May 2016 fieldwork in Karachi and interviews with CPLC staff.

[5] See, for example, “Victor Mallet and Farhan Bokhari, “Karachi: Under Siege.” Financial Times. 26 June 2014, https://www.ft.com/content/e6042de2-fc46-11e3-98b8-00144feab7de .

[6] International Crisis Group (ICG), “Pakistan: Stoking the Fire in Karachi.” Asia Report No. 284 . 15 February 2017, https://icg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/284-pakistan-stoking-the-fire-in-karachi.pdf : p. 2.

[8] Asian Development Bank, “Karachi Mega Cities Preparation Project: Final Report Volume 1,” August 2005, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-document/69115/38405-pak-dpta.pdf .

[9] Arif Hasan, “Land contestation in Karachi and the impact on housing and urban development.” International Institute for Environment and Development, April 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4540218/pdf/10.1177_0956247814567263.pdf .

[10] See, for example, Vanda Felbab-Brown, “President Obama to Visit a Favela Where Surfacing on Sewage Used to Be a Pass Time.” The Brookings Institution . 17 March 2011, https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/president-obamas-visit-to-a-favela-in-rio-below-the-surface-calm/ ; and Vanda Felbab-Brown, “No Stairway to Heaven: Rescuing Slums in Latin America,” The Brookings Institution. 2 February 2012, https://www.brookings.edu/2012/02/02/no-stairway-to-heaven-rescuing-slums-in-latin-america/ .

[11] Mashail Malik and Niloufer Siddiqui, “Exposure to Violence and Voting in Karachi, Pakistan,” United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Special Report No. 450 . June 2019, https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/sr-450-exposure_to_violence_and_voting_in_karachi_pakistan.pdf

[12] See, for example, Laurent Gayer, “A Divided City: ‘Ethnic’ and ‘Religious Conflicts in Karachi, Pakistan,” Paris: Centre de Recherches Internationales, Sciences Po. May 2003, https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en/content/divided-city-ethnic-and-religious-conflicts-karachi-pakistan

[13] Oskar Verkaaik, A People of Migrants: Ethnicity, State and Religion in Karach i . Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1994.

[14] See, for example, Noman Ahmed, “Micromanaging Karachi,” Dawn . 8 November 2016, https://www.dawn.com/news/1294851 .

[15] See, for example, Samina Ahmed, “Centralization, Authoritarianism, and the Mismanagement of Ethnic Relations in Pakistan,” in Michael E. Brown and Sumit Ganguly, Eds., Government Policies and Ethnic Relations in Asia and the Pacific . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997; and Oskar Verkaaik, Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

[16] ICG, “Policing Urban Violence in Pakistan.” Report 255 . 23 January 2014, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/pakistan/policing-urban-violence-pakistan . Overall, the Pashtun represent about 15 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million people.

[17] Nichola Khan, Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan: Violence and Transformation in the Karachi Conflict . New York: Routledge, 2010.

[18] Op. Cit., “Pakistan: Stoking the Fire in Karachi” at Note 6: p. 5.

[19] For details on Pakistan’s poppy cultivation and counternarcotics measures, see Vanda Felbab-Brown; “Pakistan’s Relations with Afghanistan and Implications for Regional Politics.” National Bureau of Asian Research. 14  May 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/pakistans-relations-with-afghanistan-and-implications-for-regional-politics/ ; and Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Pushing Up Poppies: Counternarcotics Measures in Afghanistan Affect Pakistan.” Newsweek Pakistan . 23 September 2010. For smuggling routes in Pakistan, see, Ikramul Haq, “Pak-Afghan Drug Trade in Historical Perspective.” Asian Survey . Vol. 36, no. 10: pp. 945–963, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645627 .

[20] Nazia Hussain and Louise Shelley, “Karachi: Organized Crime in a Key Megacity.” Connections: The Quarterly Journal. Vol. 15, no. 3, 2016: pp. 5–15, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26326447

[21] Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Water Theft and Water Smuggling: A Growing Problem or Tempest in a Teapot?” The Brookings Institution . March 2017, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/fp_201703_water_theft_smuggling.pdf .

[22] For which ethnic groups and political parties dominate particular subdivisions, see, for example, Imran Khan, “Karachi’s Crime Changing Face.” Dawn . 25 November 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1447410 .

[23] Op. Cit., Hasan at Note 9.

[24] Op. Cit., Gayer at Note 12.

[25]  ibid.

[26] For how criminal groups acquire political capital, see Vanda Felbab-Brown, Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs . Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2010.

[27] Op. Cit., Gayer at Note 12.

[28] See Vanda Felbab-Brown, Harold Trinkunas, and Shadi Hamid, Militants, Criminals, and Warlords: The Challenge of Local Governance in an Age of Disorder . Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2018.

[29] Matthieu Aikins, “Gangs of Karachi,” Harper’s Magazine , September 2015, https://harpers.org/archive/2015/09/gangs-of-karachi/.

[30] Fahad Desmukh, “You Are in Islamabad Because of Our Votes’: Interviews with the Lyari PAC.” Third Worldism: Dispatches from the Global South . 3 May 2012, https://thirdworldism.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/you-are-in-islamabad-because-of-our-votes-int/ .

[31] Author’s interviews with political party representatives and police officials, Karachi, May 2016. See also Dina Temple-Raston, “The Tony Soprano of Karachi: Gangster of Politician.” NPR . 2 January  2013, https://www.npr.org/2013/01/02/168197733/the-tony-soprano-of-karachi-gangster-or-politician.

[32] Vanda Felbab-Brown, "Why Pakistan Supports Terrorist Groups, and Why the US Finds it so Hard to Induce Change." The Brookings Institution. 5  January 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-fromchaos/2018/01/05/why-pakistan-supports-terrorist-groups-and-why-the-us-finds-it-so-hard-toinducechange/ .

[33] ICG, “Pakistan: Karachi’s Madrasas and Violent Extremism.” Asia Report N°130.  29 March 2007, https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/130-pakistan-karachi-s-madrasas-and-violent-extremism.pdf .

[34] Zia-ur-Rehman, “The Pakistani Taliban’s Karachi Network.” CTC Sentinel. Vol. 6, no. 5, May 2013: pp. 1–5, https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-pakistani-talibans-karachi-network/ .

[35] Op. Cit., “Pakistan: Stoking the Fire in Karachi” at Note 6.

[36] Pak Institute of Peace Studies, “Elections 2013: Violence against Political Parties, Candidates, and Voters.” May 2013, cited at https://www.pakpips.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/225-1.pdf

[37] Author’s interviews with Karachi’s human rights activities, May 2016.

[38] Author’s interviews with former and current Pakistani police officials and security experts, Karachi and Islamabad, May 2016; and Nathan Hodge and Syed Shoaib Hasan, “Karachi Terror Crackdown Sparks Outcry.” Wall Street Journal. 9  March 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/karachi-terror-crackdown-sparks-outcry-1425919728 .

[39] Op. Cit, ICG, “Policing” at Note 16, p. 41.

[40] The Protection of Pakistan Act expired in 2016 and was not renewed.

[41] Author’s interviews with Pakistani civilian justice representatives, human rights activists, and active and retired military officials, Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore, May 2016.

[42] Zia Ur-Rehman, “Sindh Rangers Work to Clean Up Violent Karachi.” Pakistan Forward. 6 September 2018, https://pakistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_pf/features/2018/09/06/feature-02 .

[44] Karachi police data cited in Meher Ahmad, “The Slain ‘Militant’ Was a Model, and Karachi Police Commander Is Out.” New York Times. 23 January 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/world/asia/karachi-police-rao-anwar-naqeebullah-mehsud.html?smid=tw-share .

[45] “Rangers detain ex-chief of fishermen cooperative for 90 days.” Dawn. 17 March 2016, https://www.dawn.com/news/1246197 .

[46] Op. Cit., “Pakistan: Stoking the Fire in Karachi” at Note 6, p. 14.

[48] Author’s interviews with human rights activists, Karachi, May 2016.

[49] Op. Cit., Zia Ur-Rehman at Note 42.

[50] “Karachi’s Ranking Improves Drastically on World Crime Index.” Geo Television News . 22 April 2019, https://www.geo.tv/latest/234985-karachis-ranking-improves-drastically-on-world-crime-index .

[51] “Karachi Operation Report: 2018 Records Higher Number of Rangers’ Operations.” The Express Tribune. 1 January 2019, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1878567/karachi-operation-report-2018-records-highest-number-rangers-operations .

[52] Op. Cit., “Pakistan: Stoking the Fire in Karachi” at Note 6, p. 18.

[54] Author’s interviews with Karachi’s water experts and human rights activities, Karachi, May 2016.

[55] See, for example, Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Calderon’s Caldron: Lessons from Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Michoacán.” Latin America Initiative Paper Series,   The Brookings Institution. September 2011, 09_calderon_felbab_brown.pdf (brookings.edu) ; and Vanda Felbab-Brown, “No Stairway to Heaven: Rescuing Slums in Latin America,” The Brookings Institution . 2 February 2, 2012, https://www.brookings.edu/2012/02/02/no-stairway-to-heaven-rescuing-slums-in-latin-america/ ; and Eduardo Moncada, Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.

[56] Author’s interviews with members of CPLC staff and advisory board and Karachi police officials, Karachi, May 2016.

[57] Author’s interviews with security analysts and political party representatives, Karachi, May 2016.

[58] Author’s interviews with business community representatives and current and former Karachi police officials, Karachi and Islamabad, May 2016.

[59] Author’s interviews with CPLC staff and advisory board members, Karachi, 2016.

[62] Author’s interviews with members of Karachi’s business community, security analysts, and human rights activists, Karachi, and Islamabad, May 2016.

[63]  Op. Cit., Ahmad, at Note 44.

[64] “Rao Anwar Acquitted in Naqeebullah Murder Case.” The Express Tribune. 23 January 2023, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2397381/rao-anwar-acquitted-in-naqeebullah-murder-case .

[65] “Missing MQM workers are being found at PSP offices.” The News.  5 August 2016, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/140142-Missing-MQM-workers-are-being-found-at-PSP-offices

[66] “Military Machinations, Violence and claims of election-rigging overshadow Pakistan’s election.” The Economist.  21 July 2018, https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/07/19/violence-and-claims-of-election-rigging-overshadow-pakistans-election .

[67] See, for example, “Foul Play, Time for Pakistan’s generals to stop meddling in politics.” The Economist . 21 July 2018, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/07/21/time-for-pakistans-generals-to-stop-meddling-in-politics

[68] Zia Ur-Rehman, “Karachi Shifts Focus to Development as Security Improves.” Pakistan Forward . 19 April 2019, https://pakistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_pf/features/2019/04/19/feature-01 .

[69] “The Global Livability Index 2018: A Free Overview.” The Economist . 2018, https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/The_Global_Liveability_Index_2018.pdf .

[70] Meher Ahmad, “Karachi Seeks to Remake Itself, with Bulldozers Leading the Way.” New York Times. 26 January 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/world/asia/karachi-construction-pakistan.html

[71] Author’s interviews with a Pakistani security analyst, Washington, DC, May 2018.

[72] Imtiaz Ali, “Situationer: Behind the Numbers of Karachi’s Crime Conundrum.” Dawn. 22 September 2022, https://www.dawn.com/news/1711286 .

[73] Salis Perwaiz, “Karachi Police Chief Admits Street Crime Increased by 7PC in 2022.” The News International.  1 January 2023, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1025894-karachi-police-chief-admits-street-crime-increased-by-7pc-in-2022 .

[74] Faraz Khan, “No Let-Up in Street Crime in City as 29 Killed, 140 Injured in 80 Days.” The News International. 23 March 2023, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1052903-no-let-up-in-street-crime-in-city-as-29-killed-140-injured-in-80-days .

[75] “Rangers Nab Most Wanted Criminals,” The Express Tribune . 1 January 2023, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2393635/rangers-nab-most-wanted-criminals .

[77] Zia Ur Rehman, “Empowering Rangers Alone Will Not Address Street Crime.” The News International . 8 February 2022, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/931712-empowering-rangers-alone-will-not-address-street-crime .

[78] Op. Cit., Khan at Note 73.

[79] Razzak Abro, “Public Safety Commission Comatose for Two Years.” The Express Tribune. 16 May 2022, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2356822/public-safety-commission-comatose-for-two-years .

[80] Op Cit., Rehman at Note 76.

[82] Op. Cit., “Rangers Nab” at Note 74.

[83] Op. Cit., Ali at Note 71.

[84] Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Why the Taliban Won, and What Washington Can Do About it Now.”  Foreign Affairs . 17 August 2021, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-08-17/why-taliban-won?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=www-foreignaffairs-com.cdn.ampproject.org&utm_campaign=amp_kickers .

[85] Ayaz Gul, “Pakistan: Terrorists Enjoy ‘Safe Havens’ in Afghanistan.” Voice of America . 14 July 2023¸ https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistanterrorists-enjoy-safe-havens-in-afghanistan/7181276.html .

[86] Ayaz Gul, “Pakistan, Militants Pause Afghan-Hosted Peace Talks for Internal Discourse Amid Cautious Optimism.” Voice of America. 30 May 2022, https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-militants-pause-afghan-hosted-peace-talks-for-internal-discourse-amid-cautious-optimism-/6595633.htm l.

[87] Vanda Felbab-Brown, “What Ayman al-Zawahri’s Death Says about Terrorism in Taliban-Run Afghanistan.” The Brookings Institution . 2 August 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/08/02/what-ayman-al-zawahris-death-says-about-terrorism-in-taliban-run-afghanistan/ .

[88] Naimat Khan, “Police Say Attack on Headquarters, Growing Extortion Meance Signal Return of Taliban to Karachi.” Arab News PK.  14 March 12023, https://www.arabnews.pk/node/ .

About the Author(s)

Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown is Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on illicit economies and international and internal conflicts and their management, including counterinsurgency. She focuses particularly on South Asia, Burma, the Andean region, Mexico, and Somalia. Dr. Felbab-Brown is the author of Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs (Brookings Institution Press, 2009) which examines military conflict and illegal economies in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan, Burma, Northern Ireland, India, and Turkey. She is also the author of numerous policy reports, academic articles, and opeds. A frequent commentator in US and international media, Dr. Felbab-Brown regularly testifies on these issues in the US Congress. She received her PhD in Political Science from MIT and her B.A. from Harvard University.

Parched for a price: Karachi's water crisis

By asad hashim.

Residents of Karachi, one of the largest cities in the world, are being held hostage by a ‘mafia’ that makes millions of dollars out of their need for water.

KARACHI, Pakistan - Orangi is a maze, a spider’s web of narrow, winding lanes, broken roads and endless rows of small concrete houses. More than two million people are crammed into what is one of the world’s largest unplanned settlements here in western Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

But Orangi has a problem: it has run out of water.

“What water?” asks Rabia Begum, 60, when told the reason for Al Jazeera’s visit to her neighbourhood earlier this year. “We don’t get any water here.”

“We yearn for clean water to drink, that somehow Allah will give us clean water.”

It is so rare for water to flow through the taps here that residents say they have given up expecting it. The last time it flowed through the main pipeline in Begum’s neighbourhood, for example, was 33 days ago.

Instead, they are forced to obtain most of their water through drilled motor-operated wells (known as ‘bores’). Ground water in the coastal city, however, tends to be salty, and unfit for human consumption.

“When we shower, our hair [becomes] sticky [with the salt], our heads feel heavy,” says Begum.

The only other option for residents is to buy unfiltered water from private water tanker operators, who fill up at a network of legal and illegal water hydrants across the city. A 1,000-gallon water tanker normally costs between $12 and $18. Begum says she has to order at least four tankers a month to meet the basic needs of her household of 10 people.

But not everyone in this working class neighbourhood can afford to buy water from the tankers or to pay the approximately $800 its costs to install a drilled well for non-drinking water.

“I’m piling up the dirty clothes, that’s how I save money,” says Farzana Bibi, 40, who manages a household of five people on an income of roughly $190 a month. “We bathe two days in a week.”

Asked how she gets by, with so little water coming via the taps and no access to a saltwater source to clean dishes or laundry, she seems resigned.

“I lessen my use. Sometimes I’ll take my clothes to my cousin’s house or my sister’s house to wash them. Sometimes I’ll get drinking water from them. One has to make do somehow.”

When she washes her clothes, she says, she makes sure not to leave the tap on. She’ll fill a basin with water and wash her dishes in that, rather than under running water. She waits until there is at least a fortnight’s worth of dirty clothes before beginning to wash them. Every drop of water, she says, needs to be accounted for.

But despite all this rationing, the water tank at her home is almost dry.

“There is a small amount of water,” she says. “I am saving it to drink. When I have money in my hands, I’ll get a tanker.”

Orangi’s problems, while acute, are not unique in Pakistan’s largest city. Karachi’s roughly 20 million residents regularly face water shortages, with working class neighbourhoods the worst hit by a failing distribution and supply system.

Areas such as Orangi, Baldia and Gadap, some of the most densely populated in the city, receive less than 40 percent of the water allotted to them, according to data collected by the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), an NGO that works on civic infrastructure and citizens’ rights in the area.

On average, residents in these areas use about 67.76 litres of water per day, according to data collected by Al Jazeera. That includes the water they use for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, bathing and sanitary uses.

So what is going on here? How is it possible that in one of the largest cities in the world, there simply isn’t enough water being supplied? Is it because the reservoirs and water sources supplying Karachi just aren’t large enough for this rapidly expanding megacity?

The answer to these questions is somewhat surprising.

Where is Karachi's water going?

Karachi draws its water mainly from the Keenjhar Lake, a man-made reservoir about 150km from the city, which, in turn, gets the water from what’s left of the Indus River after it completes its winding 3,200km journey through Pakistan.

Through a network of canals and conduits, 550 million gallons of water a day (MGD) is fed into the city’s main pumping station at Dhabeji.

That 550MGD, however, never reaches those who need it. Of that water, a staggering 42 percent – or 235 MGD – is either lost or stolen before it ever reaches consumers, according to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), the city’s water utility.

Karachi’s daily demand for water should be about 1,100 MGD, based on UN standards for water consumption for the megacity of more than 20 million. If that estimate – considered generous by local analysts – were to be pared down, however, Karachi’s current water supply should still be adequate to service most of the city’s needs.

“If 550GMD of water actually reaches Karachi, then right now, with conditions as they are, we would be able to manage the situation very well and provide water to everyone,” says Ovais Malik, KWSB’s chief engineer, who has been working for the utility for more than 12 years.

So where is it all going?

Malik complains that the water supply infrastructure in the city is aged, parts of it running for more than 40 years, and that the funds simply are not there to fix the problems.

KWSB is, by any standard, a sick institution. This fiscal year, it estimates that it will be running at a deficit of 59.3 percent . Only about 60 percent of consumers pay their bills, with the biggest defaulters being government institutions themselves, which owe KWSB about $6 million in arrears.

Moreover, Karachi has expanded in a largely unplanned fashion over the last several decades, with informal settlements ‘regularised’, but not properly brought under the ambit of civic services, he says.

“Our [settled] area has grown too much. Our…system has not been able to bear it,” says Malik.

Farhan Anwar, an architect and urban planner, told Al Jazeera that KWSB was almost bankrupt.

“There is nothing left for any kind of maintenance or capital investment.”

That lack of capital investment affects not just the ability to provide water, but to make sure that it is clean enough to be consumed, Anwar argues.

“The water is obviously contaminated,” he says. “There are discharges, there are cross-connections of water, where sewage lines are leaking into supply lines. Construction practices are such that…often sewage lines are side by side with water lines, or even above them.”

And KWSB never seems able to get around to addressing these problems, several analysts said.

“There is corruption, inefficiency, political interference, so it’s an organisation rooted in a number of problems.… You need institutional reform, to begin with. Instead of starting by fixing the pipes, you need to fix the institution that fixes the pipes,” says Anwar.

The problem, however, is not just leakages and inefficiency in the system: it is theft.

The bulk of Karachi’s ‘lost’ water is being stolen and sold right back to the people it was meant for in the first place.

Who is stealing Karachi’s water?

Akhtari Begum, 48, has to manage a household of five people on her husband’s income of $160 a month.

She ends up spending more than a third of that on water.

“Water does come [in the main line], but it gets stolen before it gets to us,” she says. “So we don’t get any water, we have to get tankers.”

A typical 1,000-gallon water tanker costs anywhere between $12 and $16, depending on where you are in the city, what time of year it is, and how desperate you might be.

Water tankers have been a part of Karachi’s water supply landscape for decades. Initially introduced as a stop-gap measure while the KWSB was meant to be expanding the city’s water supply infrastructure, they have grown to dominate the sector.

Today, there are more than 10,000 tankers operating across the city, completing roughly 50,000 trips a day, according to Noman Ahmed, the head of the architecture and urban planning department at Karachi’s NED University. They are meant to fill up at 10 KWSB-operated hydrants , but the business is so lucrative that more than 100 illegal hydrants operate across the city, tapping into the city’s mains to steal water.

“There are more than a hundred of them [illegal hydrants], and those are just the ones that have been identified. Every day there’s a new one being made somewhere,” says Anwar Rashid, a director at the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), which tracks the tankers’ illegal activity.

“They’re visible easily. They tap into the bulk mainline. They syphon off the water. And then there are tankers standing there, and they’ll fill up directly from the [illegal hydrant] and then drive off.

“When they take from the bulk, then that means that the water that was meant for residential areas will be reduced,” says Rashid.

The scale of the theft is staggering.

If tankers in Karachi are making 50,000 trips a day, with each trip priced at an average price of Rs3,000 (prices vary between Rs1,200 to Rs7,000), that amounts to an industry that is generating Rs150,000,000 a day.

That’s $1.43 million, every day. In a month, that adds up to $42.3 million. By the end of the year, stealing water in Karachi is an industry worth more than half a billion dollars.

"The mafia is very strong"

“We have carried out more than 400 operations against illegal hydrants in recent years,” Rizwan Hyder, a spokesperson for the KWSB, told Al Jazeera. “We are acting against these things … and working with the police …. We have lodged scores of cases against people operating illegal hydrants. The local police station chief in the area where [there is] a hydrant is the one who is responsible for acting against them. The moment they inform us, we act against it. In the last few days, we have taken action against three illegal hydrants in Manghopir [near Orangi Town].”

But the people who are meant to be controlling the theft are the ones cashing in, tanker operators, analysts and former KWSB employees told Al Jazeera.

“Unauthorised hydrants are run with the connivance of the water board and the police,” claims Hazoor Ahmed Khan, the head of one of the city’s main water tanker unions. “There are about 100 illegal hydrants still operating in the city…most of them are in Manghopir, in Baldia, in Malir, in Landhi, and Korangi. They’re running in Ayub Goth on the Super Highway.”

“[Illegal hydrants] can only be run by people who are in the government, or in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the police, or the revenue department,” claims the OPP’s Rashid. “And they all have the share in it.

His view is borne out by a former KWSB chief, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the subject.

“The mafia is very strong …. There is no doubt that the illegal connections that are made, our KWSB man knows about it. Even if it is an [illegal] connection within a building, he will know that a connection has been installed in the night,” he says.

“The valve man takes his money, the assistant engineer takes his money … I could never say that there is no corruption in the KWSB. But I also know that the builder has so much influence, that no matter who [the KWSB chief] is … he will get a call from [a] minister [or senior bureaucrat] to just do it.”

The ex-chief said he had himself received phone calls of this nature. Another current senior KWSB official who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he, too, had received such phone calls from members of the government, asking him to curb operations against illegal hydrants.

The result is a system where water is being stolen, commodified and then sold to citizens through the free market. A market, analysts say, that inherently favours the rich over the poor.

“The social contract, regarding what is the role of the state vis-a-vis the people, that is now mediated through the medium of money and privatisation,” says Daanish Mustafa, a professor of geography at Kings College London who studies the sector. “The rights-based approach to water, that water is a fundamental right of the people and a fundamental responsibility of the state, that has ended.

“Who is going to make money getting water to a poor man? Where there is money, the water will reach very quickly, and very easily.”

When asked about KWSB personnel being involved in the theft of water, the KWSB’s Hyder told Al Jazeera, “It has never been our position that no member of our organisation is involved [in the theft of water]. But the moment someone is found [to be] involved in this, they are fired and charged under the law. We have charged our own staff … we have zero tolerance for this.”

There are periodic drives to shut down these illegal operations. But none last for long.

“If there is ever a crackdown, if there is pressure, they do not cut the [hydrants] on the bulk mains, they just demolish a little bit of the infrastructure [of theft], and then four days later it’s back up and running,” says Rashid.

“The illegal hydrants are still running. They can never be shut,” says the former KWSB chief.

If the very people responsible for shutting down the illegal theft of water are the ones benefitting from it, who will watch the watchmen?

“If I fix the water system in an area, then no one will take a tanker. If we fix the system, whatever illegality is happening will [be] finished,” says the current senior KWSB official.

“These things are possible. We can do them,” he adds. “But we don’t want to do them.”

Can’t afford it, can’t live without it

For 16 years, Ali Asghar, 75, tended to his small herd of cows and buffalo on a small plot of land behind his cramped four-room house in Orangi. Four years ago, when the water supply to his area began to suffer, he had to give them up.

Today, his entire household of 17 people is dependent on water bought from tankers.

The biggest injustice, he says, is that he is still paying his bills to KWSB, for water that never comes.

“The [mains] pipe is lying out there, completely dry,” he says. “This is how it is in this whole neighbourhood.”

“The people of the water board are the ones who are doing this. They are the ones who create the water crisis, and they’re the ones who don’t provide the water, and take the bills,” he says, his voice rising in exasperation. “For every job, there is a price. And if you don’t have money, you won’t get anything done.”

A few streets away in Orangi’s spider web, Rabia Begum says the city’s poor are trapped because no matter what the price, people need water.

“We cannot tolerate the expense of water … and we cannot live without it,” she says.

In March 2013, four gunmen on motorcycles boxed in a car near the Qasba Mor intersection in Orangi. They proceeded to spray the car with bullets, killing its occupant, Perween Rehman.

Rehman was the director of OPP, and had worked tirelessly for the rights of Karachi’s working class communities, particularly when it came to land titles and access to water. Much of her research focused on documenting the locations of illegal water hydrants, for which she received several death threats.

Shortly before her murder, Rehman spoke to a documentary crew, who were making a film about her work. Her words ring as true today, four years later.

“It is not the poor who steal the water. It is stolen by a group of people who have the full support of the government agencies, the local councillors, mayors and the police; all are involved.”

Who will watch the watchmen, while the poor remain parched – for a price?

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Six major issues of Karachi

The 20 million people of Karachi, the biggest and the most diverse city of Pakistan, have been facing various problems for a long time. Crime, water scarcity, and power shortages are some of the major issues and the whole city seems to be trapped under the detrimental impacts of such life-threatening problems. Not only have these issues engulfed Pakistan’s economic hub, but they have also pulled the helpless people of Karachi into a quandary.

Through this newspaper, I would like to draw the attention of the central government and PTI’s strong opposition in Sindh, towards the six major issues of Karachi that need to be dealt with on a priority basis.

First, the city has suffered a lot with regards to a severe water crisis. However, if it is not managed, it could lead to violence in Karachi’s worst-hit areas. Thus, the issue demands immediate attention from the ruling government.

PM for SMEs capacity building to enhance profitability

Second, the deteriorating public transport in the most populous city of Pakistan has also added fuel to the fire. The metro and green bus projects are still yet to be completed. As a result, traffic jams have gotten even worse. People would not have faced this issue had there been a good and decent public transport system.

Third, illegal settlements and land grabbing must be eradicated from Karachi. Land mafias with political support continue to be a threat. The authorities concerned should root such mafias out from the soil of the city of light.

Fourth, at the university level, the education standard of Karachi has suffered due to lack of resources and inefficiency of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Providing adequate funds and proper attention to the HEC can be a viable solution to promote the standard of education in this megacity.

Fifth, Karachi, despite generating 60 percent of the federal revenue, hardly gets 10 percent of the federal resources. The joint efforts of federal and provincial government can take Karachi out of crime, power shortages, and unemployment. In this regard, Pakistan’s biggest and largest city needs federal resources that are more than 10 percent.

COAS vows continued support for law enforcement in KP

Finally, pollution, poor urban planning and the absence of an adequate garbage and waste disposal system have turned Karachi into the world’s filthiest city. The authorities concerned must strengthen the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to address these issues. The government must also launch a public awareness campaign about pollution.

To sum it up, the issues are very serious. The people have suffered a lot from such deadly problems. However, with proper will and determination, the PTI led government can address these issues. Karachi, the city of light, can become an international trade and finance center once more.

MUAZZAM ALI,

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An assessment of the Problems faced by Karachi and Pakistan due to the rapid population growth of the city

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Muggings, Murders and Mob Justice: Violent Crime Roars Back in Karachi

A decade after militant and criminal groups were pushed out, Pakistan’s economic powerhouse and most populous city is facing a startling rise in deadly street crime.

By Zia ur-Rehman

Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan

The terrifying stories are sprawled across local newspapers and recounted in hushed tones at tea stalls and bus stands: another day, another brutal death during an armed robbery in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

Last Wednesday, a car mechanic was shot dead by muggers trying to steal his phone. The day before, robbers in two separate incidents killed a secondhand shoe seller who refused to hand over his phone and a businessman who had just withdrawn cash from a bank. A few days earlier, robbers killed a 27-year-old mechanical engineer, stealing his phone, cash and motorcycle.

Across Karachi, Pakistan’s economic powerhouse, the rate of violent crime has soared. That has created a sense that no place is safe in this metropolis of 20 million people, and led many to worry that the city is returning to its violent, chaotic past. The country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, has called for a “large-scale operation” against the street criminals.

“The fear of mugging hangs over you every time you step outside,” said Shamim Ali, 43, a factory worker who said he was mugged twice in recent months. “Criminals operate with brazenness in broad daylight.”

The number of reported homicides, extortion attempts and motorcycle thefts has nearly doubled this year compared with the same period last year, according to the government-backed Citizen-Police Liaison Committee. At least 58 people were killed in muggings in the first five months of 2024, nearly double the number in that period in 2023, police records show. Rights activists say the true toll of violent crime is most likely higher, as many victims are hesitant to report cases.

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Problems of Karachi essay in English

Is writing problems of Karachi essay giving you a headache? Don’t worry! Our Problems of Karachi Essay in English is here for you. Professionally written, this essay is perfect for students of grades 6 to 10 and college. Available in 150, 200, 250 and 300 words and in 10 lines, get yours today and impress your professor!

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and is home to a population of more than 17 million people. It is one of the most vibrant and rapidly-growing cities in the world. However, this population growth and urbanization have come with a number of problems, ranging from environmental issues to crime, to poor infrastructure. In this blog post, we will explore the various problems that Karachi faces and discuss potential solutions. We will examine the causes of these issues and how they can be addressed in order to create a better and more sustainable future for the city’s inhabitants.

 Problems of Karachi essay in 150 words

Karachi is the biggest city in Pakistan, but it has some big problems. One big problem is bad roads, which make it hard to drive and can cause problems with water and electricity. The city also has bad sewage systems, which can make the sea and underground water dirty. 

Safety is also a big worry, with a lot of crime and bad things happening to people. Plus, many people in Karachi don’t have jobs and are very poor. They also don’t have access to things like good healthcare and schools. 

Many people are living in very crowded, bad places called slums. It is important that the leaders and other people in charge take action and try to fix these problems and make the city a better place to live.

Problems of Karachi city essay 250 words

Karachi is the biggest city in Pakistan, but it has a lot of problems. These problems are affecting the people who live there and also the city’s growth. One of the major challenges the city is facing is the lack of proper infrastructure. The roads and transportation in Karachi are not good, so it’s hard for people to move around and there’s a lot of traffic. It’s also common for people to have problems with getting water and electricity, which makes it hard for them to do things they need to do every day.

Another significant problem that the city is facing is the poor sewage system. The sewage water is not disposed of, resulting in pollution of the sea and groundwater. This not only harms the environment but also poses a threat to the health of the citizens.

Security is also a major concern in Karachi. The city has a high crime rate, and incidents of targeted killings, extortion, and kidnappings are common. The presence of various armed groups and political parties is also a major issue, as it causes instability and fear among the residents.

Karachi’s economy is also struggling, with high unemployment and poverty rates. Many residents are unable to access basic services such as healthcare and education. The city’s slums are also growing at an alarming rate, further exacerbating the problem of poverty and lack of proper housing.

In summary, Karachi is facing many challenges that are hindering its growth and affecting the daily lives of its residents. It’s vital that the government and other key stakeholders take immediate action to tackle these issues and enhance the city’s infrastructure, security, and economy, to improve the living conditions for the residents of Karachi. This will make the city a better place to live for the residents. Only through collective efforts can we see a better future for Karachi.

Karachi is a big city in Pakistan, but it has some problems that make life hard for the people who live there. One big problem is that the city doesn’t have good roads and public transportation. This makes it hard for people to get around and causes traffic. Also, the power and water often don’t work well, which makes it hard for people to do things they need to do.

Another big problem in Karachi is that the sewage system is not good. This causes pollution in the sea and in the water people to drink. This is bad for the environment and also makes people sick. Also, people in Karachi don’t get rid of their trash. This makes the streets dirty and clogged drains.

Safety is another big worry in Karachi. The city has a lot of crime and people get hurt or killed a lot. Bad things like being kidnapped, threatened for money and targeted killings happen often. There are also many groups with weapons and different political parties, which makes the city feel unsafe and scary for the people who live there.

The economy of Karachi is also struggling, with high unemployment and poverty rates. Many residents are unable to access basic services such as healthcare and education. The city’s slums are also growing at an alarming rate, further exacerbating the problem of poverty and lack of proper housing.

To sum up, Karachi has many problems that make it hard for the city to grow and for the people who live there. The government and other important people need to take action now to fix these problems. They need to make the city’s roads, public transportation, and housing better. They also need to make sure people have clean water and power. Furthermore, they need to make sure the city is clean and safe. Only by working together can we make Karachi a better place to live. The government should also focus on sustainable solutions for waste management, transportation, and housing. Also, they should take action against criminal groups to improve the security situation and promote peace in the city.

10 problems of Karachi

• Lack of proper infrastructure
• Inadequate transportation system
• Severe traffic congestion
• Frequent power outages
• Water shortages
• Inadequate sewage system leading to pollution
• Poor disposal of waste
• High crime rate
• Incidents of targeted killings, extortion, and kidnappings
• The presence of various armed groups and political parties causes instability.

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Short Paragraph on My City Karachi (424 Words)

Here is your short paragraph on my city Karachi:

My name is Jiah khan. I am the resident of the beautiful city of Pakistan called Karachi. I have been born and brought up in this city. My parents were also born in the same city. Karachi is the capital city of Sindh province.

It is known as the “City of Lights”. It is the largest city of Pakistan. It is also called the financial capital and the main seaport of the country.

Karachi is a highly populated city of Pakistan with approximately 18.5 million people. It is also the city with largest population in the world.

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In the year 2006 Karachi is declared as the thirteenth largest urban agglomeration. It is also seen as the world’s fourth largest metropolitan area. Karachi is the second largest city which is organized by the Islamic Conference.

Karachi is commonly known as “The bride of cities” because of its energy. Karachi is the city of “Quaid” because the birth & the burial of (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) Quaid-E-Azam who was the founder of the country. Karachi is the life of Pakistan as it is the country’s premier centre of trade, industry & banking.

It is a house of largest corporations which includes all those involved in shipping, entertainment, arts, advertising, fashion, textiles, publishing, medical research, textiles and software development. Karachi is a hub for higher education in wider Islamic world & the southern part of Asia. Overall the city is considered as a Beta world city. Due to its location the city also enjoys its prominent position on a Bay.

Globally Karachi is the fastest growing city. After Pakistan got its independence Karachi’s population dramatically increased because thousands of Urdu Muhajirs or migrants from India (East Pakistan- later known as Bangladesh) migrated towards Pakistan & settled down in the city. In terms of area Karachi spreads over a vast area of about 3,530 km per square which is almost 5 times more than Singapore.

On an average the total population count of Karachi is 80, 00,000. The literacy rate of Karachi is very high as compared to other cities in the country. The graves of Miss Fatima Jinnah & Shaheed-e-Millat Laiquat Ali Khan are located in the city.

Karachi is also known for it is international airport. The city has a moderate climate throughout the year. The city is blessed with so many beautiful attractions worth seeing. Some of them are the Zoo, Sands Pit, Frere Hall, M.A.Jinnah Road, Clifton, Zaib Un Nisa Street, Manora, Hawks Bay and Frere Hall.

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• Paragraph on My City Delhi: The City of Opportunities – by Shanu
• Short Paragraph on Life in a Big City