Karachi
Karachi is the capital of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the most populous city in Pakistan,sixth most populous city proper in the world and the 8th most populous metropolitan city in the world.Ranked as a beta world city, the city is Pakistan’s premier industrial and financial centre.Karachi is also Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city. Situated on the Arabian Sea, Karachi serves as a transport hub, and is home to two of Pakistan’s two largest seaports, the Port of Karachi and Port Bin Qasim, as well as the busiest airport in Pakistan.
Though the Karachi region has been inhabited for millennia,the city was founded as the fortified village of Kolachi in 1729.The settlement drastically increased in importance with the arrival of British East India company in the mid 19th century, who not only embarked on major works to transform the city into a major seaport, but also connected it with their extensive railway network. By the time of the Partition of British India, the city was the largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000. Following the independence of Pakistan, the city’s population increased dramatically with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugeesfrom India. The city experienced rapid economic growth following independence, attracting migrants from throughout Pakistan and South Asia.
Karachi is one of Pakistan’s most secular and socially liberal cities. It is also the most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse city in Pakistan. With a population of 14.9 million recorded in the 2017 Census of Pakistan, Karachi is considered to be the second largest city after Jakarta within the Muslim majority countries, and is the world’s 10th most populous urban agglomeration. Karachi is one of the world’s fastest growing cities, and has communities representing almost every ethnic group in Pakistan. Karachi is home to over 2 million Bangladeshi immigrants, 1 million Afghan refugees, and up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar.
Karachi is now Pakistan’s premier industrial and financial centre. The city has a formal economy estimated to be worth $113 billion as of 2014. Karachi collects over a third of Pakistan’s tax revenue, and generates approximately 20% of Pakistan’s GDP.Approximately 30% of Pakistani industrial output is from Karachi, while Karachi’s ports handle approximately 95% of Pakistan’s foreign trade. Approximately 90% of the multinational corporations operating in Pakistan are headquartered in Karachi. Up to 70% of Karachi’s workforce is employed in the informal economy, which is typically not included in GDP calculations.
Known as the “City of Lights” in the 1960s and 1970s for its vibrant nightlife, Karachi was beset by sharp ethnic, sectarian, and political conflict in the 1980s with the arrival of weaponry during the Soviet–Afghan War. The city had become well known for its high rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM political party, and Islamist militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers. The city’s murder rate in 2015 had decreased by 75% compared to 2013, and kidnappings decreased by 90%,with the improved security environment triggering sharp increases in real-estate prices
Etymology
Karachi was reputedly founded in 1729 as the settlement of Kolachi. The new settlement is said to have been named in honour of Mai Kolachi, whose son is said to have slain a man-eating crocodile in the village after his elder brothers had already been killed by it.
The city’s inhabitants are referred to by the demonym Karachiite in English, and Karāchīwālā کراچی والا in Urdu.
History
Early history
The 15th–18th century Chaukhandi tombs are located 29 km (18 mi) east of Karachi.
Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites discovered by a team from Karachi University on the Mulri Hills constitute one of the most important archaeological discoveries made in Sindh during the last 50 years. The earliest inhabitants of the Karachi region are believed to have been hunter-gatherers, with ancient flint tools discovered at several sites. A sea port called Barbarikon by the Greeks was situated in Karachi.
The Karachi region is believed to have been known to the ancient Greeks. The region may be the site of Krokola, where Alexander the Greatonce camped to prepare a fleet for Babylonia, as well as Morontobara which may possibly be Karachi’s Manora neighbourhood.
In 711 CE, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh and Indus Valley. The Karachi region is believed to have been known to the Arabs as Debal, from where Muhammad Bin Qasim launched his forces into South Asia in 712 C.E.
Under Mirza Ghazi Beg, the Mughal administrator of Sindh, the development of coastal Sindh and the Indus delta was encouraged. Under his rule, fortifications in the region acted as a bulwark against Portuguese incursions into Sindh. The Ottoman admiral, Seydi Ali Reis, mentioned Debal and Manora Island in his book Mir’ât ül Memâlik in 1554.
Kolachi settlement
Karachi was founded in 1729 as the settlement of Kolachi under the rule of the ethnically Baloch Talpur Mirs of Sindh. The founders of the settlement are said to arrived from the nearby town of Karak Bandar after the harbour there silted in 1728 after heavy rains. The settlement was fortified, and defended with cannons imported by Sindhi sailors from Muscat, Oman. The name Karachee was used for the first time in a Dutch document from 1742, in which a merchant ship de Ridderkerk is shipwrecked near the original settlement. The city continued to be ruled by the Talpur Mirs until it was occupied by forces under the command of John Keane in February 1839.
British Raj
Some of Karachi’s most recognized structures, such as Frere Hall, date from the British Raj.
Karachi features several examples of colonial-era Indo-Saracenic architecture.
The former State Bank of Pakistan building was built during the colonial era.
The British East India Company captured Karachi on 3 February 1839 after the HMS Wellesley opened fire and quickly destroyed the local mud fort at Manora. The town was annexed to British India in 1843 after Sindh was captured by Major General Charles James Napier in the Battle of Miani, with the city declared capital of the new British province.
The city was recognized for its strategic importance, prompting the British to establish the Port of Karachi in 1854. Karachi rapidly became a transportation hub for British India owing to newly built port and rail infrastructure, as well as the increase in agricultural exports from the opening of productive tracts of newly irrigated land in Punjab and interior Sindh.The British also developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison in order to aid the British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the 21st Native Infantry, then stationed in Karachi, mutinied and declared allegiance to rebel forces in September 1857, though the British were able to quickly defeat the rebels and reassert control over the city. Following the Rebellion, British colonial administrators continued to develop the city. In 1864, the first telegraphic message was sent from South Asia to England from Karachi.Public building works were undertaken, including the construction of Frere Hall in 1865 and the later Empress Market. In 1878, the British Raj connected Karachi with the network of British India’s vast railway system.
By 1899, Karachi had become the largest wheat-exporting port in the East. British development projects in Karachi resulted in an influx of economic migrants from several ethnicities and religions, including Anglo-British, Parsis, Marathis, and Goan Christians, among others. Karachi’s newly arrived Jewish population established the city’s first synagogue in 1893. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in Karachi’s Wazir Mansion in 1876 to migrants from Gujarat. By the end of the 19th century, Karachi’s population was estimated to be 105,000.
Under British rule, the city’s municipal government was established. Known as the Father of Modern Karachi, mayor Seth Harchandrai Vishandas led the municipal government to improve sanitary conditions in the Old City, as well as major infrastructure works in the New Town after his election in 1911.
Post-independence
At the dawn of Pakistan’s independence in 1947, Karachi was Sindh’s largest city with a population of over 400,000. Despite communal violence across India and Pakistan, Karachi remained relatively peaceful compared to cities further north in Punjab. The city became the focus for the resettlement of Muslim Muhajirs migrating from India, leading to a dramatic expansion of the city’s population. This migration lasted until the 1960s. This immigration ultimately transformed the city’s demographics and economy.
Karachi was selected as the first capital of Pakistan and served as such until the capital was shifted to Rawalpindi in 1958.While foreign embassies shifted away from Karachi, the city is host to numerous consulates and honorary consulates.[64] Between 1958 and 1970, Karachi’s role as capital of Sindh was ceased due to the One Unit programme enacted by President Iskander Mirza.
Karachi of the 1960s was regarded as an economic role model around the world, with Seoul, South Korea borrowing from the city’s second “Five-Year Plan. The 1970s saw major labour struggles in Karachi’s industrial estates. The 1980s and 1990s saw an influx of thousands of Afghan refugees from the Soviet war in Afghanistan into Karachi; who were in turn followed in smaller numbers by refugees escaping from post-revolution Iran.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Karachi was rocked by political and conflict, while crime rates drastically increased with the arrival of weaponry from the War in Afghanistan.Conflict between the MQM party, and ethnic Sindhis, Pashtuns, and Punjabis was sharp. The party and its vast network of supporters were targeted by Pakistani security forces as part of the controversial Operation Clean-up in 1992 – an effort to restore peace in the city that lasted until 1994.Anti-Hindu riots also broke out in Karachi in 1992 in retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Mosque in India by a group of Hindu nationalists earlier that year. Karachi had become widely known for its high rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM party, and Islamist militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers.
Geography
Satellite view of Karachi
Karachi is located on the coastline of Sindh province in southern Pakistan, along a natural harbour on the Arabian Sea. Karachi is built on a coastal plains with scattered rocky outcroppings, hills and coastal marshlands. Coastal mangrove forests grow in the brackish waters around the Karachi Harbour, and farther southeast towards the expansive Indus River Delta. West of Karachi city is the Cape Monze, locally known as Ras Muari, which is an area characterised by sea cliffs, rocky sandstone promontories and undeveloped beaches.
Within the city of Karachi are two small ranges: the Khasa Hills and Mulri Hills, which lie in the northwest and act as a barrier between North Nazimabad Town and Orangi Town.Karachi’s hills are barren and are part of the larger Kirthar Range, and have a maximum elevation of 528 metres (1,732 feet).Between the hills are wide coastal plains interspersed with dry river beds and water channels. Karachi has developed around the Malir Riverand Lyari Rivers, with the Lyari shore being the site of the settlement for Kolachi. To the west of Karachi lies the Indus River flood plain.
The Arabian Sea influences Karachi’s climate, providing the city with more moderate temperatures compared to interior Sindhprovince.
Karachi has an arid climate (Köppen: BWh) dominated by a long “Summer Season” while moderated by oceanic influence from the Arabian Sea. The city has low annual average precipitation levels (approx. 250 mm (9.8 in) per annum), the bulk of which occurs during the July–August monsoon season. While the summers are hot and humid, cool sea breezes typically provide relief during hot summer months, though Karachi is prone to deadly heat waves, though a text-message based early warning system is now in place that helped prevent any fatalities during an unusually strong heatwave in October 2017. The winter climate is dry and lasts between December and February. It is dry and pleasant relative to the warm hot season, which starts in March and lasts until monsoons arrive in June. Proximity to the sea maintains humidity levels at near-constant levels year-round.
The city’s highest monthly rainfall, 429.3 mm (16.90 in), occurred in July 1967. The city’s highest rainfall in 24 hours occurred on 7 August 1953, when about 278.1 millimetres (10.95 in) of rain lashed the city, resulting in major flooding. Karachi’s highest recorded temperature is 48 °C (118 °F) which was recorded on 9 May 1938, and the lowest is 0 °C (32 °F) recorded on 21 January 1934.
| Climate data for Karachi | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 32.8 (91) |
36.1 (97) |
41.5 (106.7) |
44.4 (111.9) |
47.8 (118) |
47.0 (116.6) |
42.2 (108) |
41.7 (107.1) |
42.8 (109) |
43.3 (109.9) |
38.5 (101.3) |
34.5 (94.1) |
47.8 (118) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 25.8 (78.4) |
27.7 (81.9) |
31.5 (88.7) |
34.3 (93.7) |
35.2 (95.4) |
34.8 (94.6) |
33.1 (91.6) |
31.7 (89.1) |
32.6 (90.7) |
34.7 (94.5) |
31.9 (89.4) |
27.4 (81.3) |
31.7 (89.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 18.1 (64.6) |
20.2 (68.4) |
24.5 (76.1) |
28.3 (82.9) |
30.5 (86.9) |
31.4 (88.5) |
30.3 (86.5) |
28.9 (84) |
28.9 (84) |
27.9 (82.2) |
23.9 (75) |
19.5 (67.1) |
26.0 (78.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 10.4 (50.7) |
12.7 (54.9) |
17.6 (63.7) |
22.3 (72.1) |
25.9 (78.6) |
27.9 (82.2) |
27.4 (81.3) |
26.1 (79) |
25.2 (77.4) |
21.0 (69.8) |
15.9 (60.6) |
11.6 (52.9) |
20.3 (68.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 0.0 (32) |
3.3 (37.9) |
7.0 (44.6) |
12.2 (54) |
17.7 (63.9) |
22.1 (71.8) |
22.2 (72) |
20.0 (68) |
18.0 (64.4) |
10.0 (50) |
6.1 (43) |
1.3 (34.3) |
0.0 (32) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 6.0 (0.236) |
9.8 (0.386) |
11.7 (0.461) |
4.4 (0.173) |
0.0 (0) |
5.5 (0.217) |
85.5 (3.366) |
67.4 (2.654) |
19.9 (0.783) |
1.0 (0.039) |
1.8 (0.071) |
4.4 (0.173) |
217.4 (8.559) |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 270.7 | 249.4 | 271.6 | 277.4 | 299.1 | 231.8 | 155.0 | 147.7 | 218.8 | 283.5 | 273.3 | 272.0 | 2,950.3 |
Cityscape
Central Karachi features several buildings dating from the colonial era.
A nighttime view of Karachi’s posh seaside locality of Clifton.
The city first developed around the Karachi Harbour, and owes much of its growth to its role as a seaport at the end of the 18th century,contrasted with Pakistan’s millennia-old cities such as Lahore, Multan, and Peshawar. Karachi’s Mithadar neighbourhood represents the extent of Kolachi prior to British rule.
British Karachi was divided between the “New Town” and the “Old Town,” with British investments focused primarily in the New Town. The Old Town was a largely unplanned neighbourhood which housed most of the city’s indigenous residents, and had no access to sewerage systems, electricity, and water.The New Town was subdivided into residential, commercial, and military areas. Given the strategic value of the city, the British developed the Karachi Cantonment as a military garrison in the New Town in order to aid the British war effort in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Much of Karachi’s skyline is decentralized, with some growth in traditionally suburban areas.
The city’s development was largely confined to the area north of the Chinna Creek prior to independence, although the seaside area of Clifton was also developed as a posh locale under the British, and its large bungalows and estates remain some of the city’s most desirable properties. The aforementioned historic areas form the oldest portions of Karachi, and contain its most important monuments and government buildings, with the I. I. Chundrigar Road being home to most of Pakistan’s banks, including the Habib Bank Plaza which was Pakistan’s tallest building from 1963 until the early 2000s.
Situated on a coastal plain northwest of Karachi’s historic core lies the sprawling district of Orangi Town. North of the historic core is the largely middle-class district of Nazimabad, and upper-middle class North Nazimabad, which were developed in the 1950s. To the east of the historic core is the area known as Defence – an expansive upscale suburb developed and administered by the Pakistan Army. Karachi’s coastal plains along the Arabian Sea south of Clifton were also developed much later as part of the greater Defence Housing Authority project.
Karachi’s city limits also include several islands, including Baba and Bhit Islands, Oyster Rocks, and Manora, a former island which is now connected to the mainland by a thin 12 kilometre long shoal known as Sandspit. The city has been described as one divided into sections for those able to afford to live in planned localities with access to urban amenities, and those who live in unplanned communities with inadequate access to such services. Up to 60% of Karachi’s residents live in such unplanned communities.
