peaceful karachi essay

• Craft and Criticism
• Fiction and Poetry
• News and Culture
• Lit Hub Radio
• Reading Lists

• Literary Criticism
• Craft and Advice
• In Conversation
• On Translation
• Short Story
• From the Novel
• Bookstores and Libraries
• Film and TV
• Art and Photography
• Freeman’s
• The Virtual Book Channel
• The Lit Hub Podcast
• The Critic and Her Publics
• Fiction/Non/Fiction
• I’m a Writer But
• Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
• Write-minded
• First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
• Behind the Mic
• Lit Century
• Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
• Beyond the Page
• The Cosmic Library
• Emergence Magazine
• The History of Literature
• The Best of the Decade
• Best Reviewed Books
• BookMarks Daily Giveaway
• The Daily Thrill
• CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

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.

• Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Samira Shackle

Previous article, next article, support lit hub..

Join our community of readers.

to the Lithub Daily

Popular posts.

Jeff VanderMeer on Keeping Creative Play Alive

• RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

Become a member for as low as $5/month

Karachi transformed from 'most dangerous' to 'peaceful' city: CM Murad

The chief minister noted that extremism and terrorism in the 1990s had caused widespread unrest in Pakistan.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that Karachi, which was once ranked as the world’s sixth most dangerous city, is now peaceful.

Addressing participants of the National Security and War Course 2025, CM Murad stated that extremism and terrorism in the 1990s had caused widespread unrest in Pakistan.

The Sindh government, through a well-coordinated plan, conducted operations to restore peace and order. Karachi, once considered one of the most dangerous cities globally, is now a peaceful and developing city.

The Sindh Police is the key institution responsible for maintaining law and order in the province, with a force of 120,000 personnel.

Murad further said that Karachi is the sixth-largest city in the world and the country's largest commercial hub. From the Thar Desert to the Indus River region and from Kashmore to Karachi, ensuring peace is the responsibility of the Sindh Police.

The Sindh government has taken several steps to strengthen the police force, upgrading the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and Special Branch, and launching the Sindh Safe City Project .

The S4 system, which automatically recognizes faces and license plates, has been implemented at 40 toll plazas across the province. The budget for investigations has been increased, and police stations have been given a direct budget of Rs4.8 billion.

The chief minister also mentioned that a health insurance policy worth Rs4.961 billion has been introduced for the police.

The martyr package has been increased from Rs10 million to Rs23 million.

The families of martyred officers will receive salaries until the officer’s retirement age, and they will be given two jobs.

The Sindh government has taken numerous steps to combat terrorism and extremism.

He added that there has been an increase in collaboration, with information-sharing and joint operations conducted with law enforcement agencies. The government has also fostered social connections to combat extremism and promote peace.

Additionally, the Sindh government is working on improving infrastructure and social services in Kacha to stabilize the region, and the Sindh Police is being provided with modern technology to improve conditions there.

Earlier, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah emphasized that the Sindh government is deeply committed to addressing the challenges Karachi faces and is making all possible efforts to ease the public's concerns.

He highlighted that road repairs in the city commenced following the recent rains, with the provincial government having already allocated Rs1.5 billion to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for this purpose.

The Sindh Chief Minister further pointed out that Rs200 billion is being invested in various development projects across Karachi, and significant progress is being made on key transport initiatives.

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ

Entertainment

Influencer investigated for illegally feeding chicken to crocodile in Australia

DivaJilly reveals her marriage to KingCaffeine was for ‘tax purposes’ amid cheating allegations

Streamer DivaJilly addresses cheating accusations from her husband, claiming their marriage was for ‘tax purposes.’

‘CEO of A List Smiles’ arrested for illegal dental practice

Brandon Dillard, known as the ‘CEO of A List Smiles,’ was arrested for running an unlicensed dental clinic in Atlanta.

Comedian Jeff Wittek reveals shocking details of Diddy's infamous 'Freak Off' party in Miami

"I showed up in a polo shirt while others were in lingerie. I saw live sex happen that night." Wittek reveals.

Video shows Diddy urging partygoers to stay 'lotioned up' resurfaces

Footage shows Diddy emceeing, "Ayo, everybody, make sure your breath is fresh, make sure you lotioned up."

PTI workers flex muscles in Lahore

D-Day at D-Chowk

Naqvi vows action against 'saboteurs'

Lt Col, five soldiers martyred in Waziristan

IHC orders designated protest area for PTI

SC issues cause-list for coming week

Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah releases Rs1.5b for road repairs in Karachi

CM Murad releases Rs1.5b for road repairs

Murad Ali Shah shares progress on Safe City Project in Karachi

Middle East: retaliation and counter-retaliation

Nasrallah killing and impact on various Mideast players

A democratic betrayal?

Your oppression will not save you

Politics of amorality

AI education revolution

• Entertainment News
• Life & Style
• Prayer Timing Pakistan
• Weather Forecast Pakistan
• Karachi Weather
• Lahore Weather
• Islamabad Weather
• Online Advertising
• Subscribe to the Paper
• Style Guide
• Privacy Policy
• Code of ethics

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or derived from. Unless otherwise stated, all content is copyrighted © 2024 The Express Tribune.

Problems of Karachi Essay | 200 & 500 Words

by Pakiology | Sep 20, 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.

Find more Essays on the following Topics

Ask Your Questions

You might like, democracy in pakistan essay with quotations.

Explore the evolution, challenges, and progress of democracy in Pakistan in this in-depth essay. Gain insights into...

A True Muslim Essay With Quotations 2023

A true Muslim essay is about the qualities of a true Muslim and how they embody the teachings of Islam in their daily...

Women Empowerment Essay For Students

This women empowerment essay highlights the importance of empowering women for the growth and development of society....

Health is Wealth Essay For Students

In this essay, we explore why health is wealth and why it is crucial to prioritize our physical and mental well-being...

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Submit Comment

• class-9-notes
• Friendship quotes
• Scholarships
• Science News
• Study Abroad
• Study in Australia
• SZABMU MDCAT
• UHS Past MCQs
• Universities

• Latest News
• Entertainment
• Money Matters
• Writer's Archive
• Oped Opinion Newspost Editorial
• Magazines Instep Money Matters YOU US TNS

Problems and solution for Karachi

While law and order situation in Pakistan’s mega city, Karachi, is much better and improved than ever before, largely due to effective ‘Karachi operation’, and the world has now considered it among the safe cities.

Karachi has three major problems, crime, terrorism, political injustice and despite been an economic hub, never got its due share.

If we really want to sustain the peaceful atmosphere in Karachi, it is very important that in addition to law and order, city’s core issue need to be addressed and we are still far from it, which has made this city of over 20 million, unmanageable and yet, no one ready to ‘own’ this city, but, everyone looking for its ‘share’.

It is time that we must stop looking at Karachi, only from an ethnic perspective or as a city of one party or one group. What the political leadership and government need to understand is that the city is also the provincial capital of Sindh. Question is why Karachi cannot become Lahore or Islamabad?

The city like Karachi cannot be ruled the way it is being governed for the past 70 years. Though, it is history now but shifting federal capital from Karachi to Islamabad was perhaps the biggest disservice to Karachi and with the people of Sindh.

Influx of population from other cities has always been a good sign provided the city is planned, accordingly. Ownership of the Karachi has been the biggest problem due to which successive governments never took keen interest in developing its commercial hub, which provide over 70 percent revenue even in worst conditions. The dilemma is that we as a nation never did to the city, which has been backbone of our economy, which gave birth to negative trends both in politics and governance.

Today, the city is nearly unmanageable and if we fail to find a solution it would soon be, ungovernable. So, what is the solution to the problem and why successive government failed, resulting in the birth of a party like the MQM. Whether the party will survive or die, but, if the problem remains unresolved it may lead to another kind of unrest, which may be uncontrollable.

Solution to Karachi must be addressed above all political and ethnic dispensation. Serious doubts have been created during 2017 Census and even independent observers expressed doubt over the census results. By not giving the true picture of its population is yet another biased approach towards its own economic hub. The observers believe the city has the population of over 20 million.

Therefore, this approach needs to be changed if we are really sincere in addressing Karachi problems.

(1) Determine the exact population of Karachi and prepare the ‘master plan’, accordingly without which you cannot give due share for city’s development.

(2) Give Karachi, the status of a metropolitan city with all its manifestation like all metropolis or mega cities around the world.

(3) Whether through direct election or existing local bodies system, the elected mayor

should be the ‘father’ of the whole city and not merely 34 percent.

(4) Karachi must have its own police commissioner and localised police system, above all political and ethnic consideration with zero political interference.

(5) Promote the culture of merit, both in jobs and education.

(6) Make Karachi hub of cultural activities and though institutions like Arts Council of Karachi, and NAPA playing its role much more is needed. City needs plan and not unplanned ‘food streets’.

(7) It is time for the complete revival of Karachi’s playgrounds and parks. Some 80 percent of these grounds and parks have been ‘sold’.

(8) Through a well-planned conspiracy over the years, there is a big scam in the rising ‘Katchi Abadis’, which are now nearly 7,000.

(9) Terrorism and law and order, is only one aspect of the problem and the city cannot run for decades under ‘Rangers or para-military” or through unfinished operation. It requires a lasting political solution and a will to address the issue. Therefore, the role of the federal as well as Sindh governments is the key. But, they need to look to the solution above ‘ethnic-biased’, which is something missing.

(10) Karachi need ‘Karachi Action Plan’, after Karachi operation and that too on fast pace. Can you imagine a metropolitan city without a ‘master plan’ for almost 40 years and even the one prepared lack the vision. The city, which once was governed under Karachi Development Authority, KDA, had now been divided and sudden expansion of Cantonment Board and Defense Housing Authority, DHA, further aggravated the situation.

Due to massive corruption, Karachi’s major development projects take from 10 years to 40 years like Karachi Mass Transit, KMT, Karachi Circular Railway, Lyari Expressway and as a result the solution becomes problem. This is exactly what is going on in Karachi and except for one or two, all its flyovers, underpasses reflect work of most incompetent engineers, who lacked vision. Yet, they become millionaires and billionaires with the passage of time.

Unfortunately, every party and group as well as governments and establishment are waiting for the ‘final fall of the MQM’, in all its form and manifestations. The MQM may survive or die a natural or unnatural death, but, if the problem in urban Sindh exists, it may give birth to another party like the MQM, in future.

It took almost four decades before much controversial ‘quota system’, abolished in 2013. I always believe that the idea behind the system adopted during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government was not bad in uplifting the Sindhi middle class and deprived section of the society, but, it was badly implemented and laid the foundation of Mohajir politics.

He only wanted quota system for 10 years but, successive governments used it for ‘politician reasons’, which further created the gulf and sadly, never tried to uplift the education system in rural areas, resulting in complete decline of education and merit culture in whole Sindh.

Karachi’s problem aggravated because no ruler tried to bridge the ‘rural-urban’ divide. On the contrary, the successive rulers politicised the issue and created further division for political reasons. Unfortunately, the thinking has not changed as yet and we have not even able to differentiate between Karachiites and Mohajirites. Treating whole Karachi with a particular mindset has always been key to the problem.

If Gen Zia and former president Pervez Musharraf used Mohajirs for their political gains, the PPP governments could become the real stakeholder of this city had it owned the city instead of treating it with biased approach.

The PPP has a role to play and can win over the city if they work on abovementioned proposals. The dilemma of our political parties had been their neglect towards promoting local government system. Instead of empowering local governments, giving them financial and administrative powers, the provincial governments want to ‘control’ the system, directly.

Karachi is Sindh and there is no doubt about it. Therefore, the government needs to treat it as its ‘face’ for the world. Sindh is lucky that this city is a commercial and economic hub of the country. Yet, no one is ready to take its ownership. This in itself reflects bias and no wonder why Karachi witnessed ethnic, sectarian and political violence which resulted in killing of thousands of people.

The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang  

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGeo

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit is scheduled for October 15 and 16, 2024

Minister raises concerns about involvement of armed groups, including hundreds of Afghans, during PTI’s protests

ATC schedules next hearing for arguments after recording statements of the accused in a May 9 case

Prominent figures named in May 9 cases include Shireen Mazari, Zartaj Gul, Sadaqat Abbasi, Arif Abbasi

Met Office reports rainfall from across the region with Peshawar airport recording 27mm of rain

Around 87 people treated at Isolation Ward at Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex in Nowshera

United States Institute of Peace

Home ▶ Publications

In Karachi, Flooding Lays Bare City’s Governance Issues

Weeks after historic rainfall, fractured local governance has left some sections of Pakistan’s largest city still recovering.

By: Jumaina Siddiqui

Publication Type: Analysis

Many parts of Pakistan have always struggled with flooding, especially over the last decade, due in part to climate change as weather events have become more extreme. But for Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, August saw immense rainfall—breaking all previous records in the past century—and widespread flooding that brought the city to a standstill. USIP’s Jumaina Siddiqui and Cyril Almeida look at why Karachi’s flooding situation is so dire, how contentious political dynamics have impeded governance reforms in the city, and what can be done to prevent future humanitarian disasters.

Pakistan faces problems with monsoons and flooding every year, why was the situation in Karachi so dire this time? 

Siddiqui: While other parts of the country endured record rainfall as well, the flooding was minimal—like in the case of Lahore, where the water had all drained away within 24-36 hours thanks to improved infrastructure.

Karachi was the absolute opposite. With sustained rainfall over the course of the entire month, over 40 people died as a result of the flooding, negatively impacting an economy that was already struggling to recover as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even weeks later, some areas are still feeling the impact of the flooding and citizens fear that any further rainfall could bring the city to a standstill once again.

This flooding impacted both urban and rural areas. In urban centers, the flooding is due mainly to poor infrastructure and lack of a proper solid waste management system. In rural areas, this flooding impacts rivers and irrigation canals, adversely affecting both industry and agriculture alike.

Even areas where the flood waters have reduced or receded, the garbage and sewage remain—leaving a secondary health nightmare for the most impoverished communities in Karachi. People from all socioeconomic strata struggled to find clean drinking water during the flood, and some areas are still struggling. In addition to no clean drinking water and unsanitary conditions, citizens continue to face electricity shortages as well. The flooding of homes has created significant homelessness, especially in the kachi abadis (slum areas). All of these problems stem from the city being poorly governed and exploited by multiple political parties vying for control of the city’s economic resources, but all failing to deliver basic services to its residents. 

The political dimensions of the governance problems in Karachi are long-standing and seemingly intractable. Why has it been so difficult to find a reasonably effective governance strategy in Karachi?

Almeida: Pakistan’s largest city has outsized political problems. It has been virtually impossible to align the city, provincial, and national governments—in addition to the civil- and military-run administrative divisions in the city—in a sustainable manner. Politically, Karachi had been dominated by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) since the 1980s, but a state-led operation since 2013 has dismantled the party. Its remnants, the various MQM factions, have been unable to band together, leaving a power vacuum in the city. Pakistan’s 2018 general elections saw the nationally ruling Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) party capture a majority of seats in Karachi, but many of the winners were first-time candidates and political novices without governance experience.

A second problem is the political dynamics of Sindh: urban, Urdu-speaking Karachi votes one way; rural, Sindhi-speaking Sindh votes another way. Over the last three elections, the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) dominance of rural Sindh has allowed it to lead the provincial government while having a relatively small voter base in Karachi. So, despite being the provincial capital, the country’s most populous city, and the primary residence for most of Sindh’s political leaders, Karachi’s urban problems are often not of direct political consequence to the provincial government.

A third problem is center-province tensions. When rival parties lead the federal and Sindh governments, as is the case with the PTI and PPP at present, Karachi is left in limbo when it comes to the funding and implementation of large infrastructure projects and urban overhaul.

Finally, there is the administrative jigsaw that is Karachi itself, with overlapping and intersecting areas of civilian and military administration in the city. City-wide storm water drainage, for example, is near-impossible to plan in the presence of rival and overlapping administrative fiefdoms, a by-product of the geographical expansion of Karachi and the creation of military-run upscale housing areas.

Karachi, as a megacity, has undergone unchecked growth and urbanization. The floods have put this into stark light, with both elites and the average resident protesting the government’s response—or lack thereof. How will this exacerbate tensions within the city? 

Siddiqui: In their efforts to clean the nalas (drainage canals)—one of the causes of the historic flooding this past month—local government authorities in Karachi demolished a number of illegal settlements and commercial areas. Some of this demolition had started before the floods and before the pandemic, which had already created an uproar among small business owners. However, the demolition of homes during the floods creates a greater likelihood for a humanitarian crisis in a city already struggling to recover from both the floods and the COVID-19 economic crisis.

The problem in Karachi is that various local government entities have allowed rapid and massive construction of housing areas, apartment buildings, and commercial buildings without any consultation with the offices and departments that have purview over the projects and without any environmental impact oversight. Over time, the illegally built homes blocked the drainage waterways (and their associated garbage and sewage) along the nalas .

Most of the elites in Karachi, in general, couldn’t be less bothered by the illegal construction or its subsequent destruction. However, these floods impacted both the elites and the average person alike—city-wide power outages and flooding did not discriminate by economic status this time around. For the first time in recent memory, we saw the elite of Karachi protesting for lack of services.

Could this crisis become a catalyst for positive change in the megacity? What are the prospects for an improvement in governance and service delivery in Karachi? 

Almeida: As noted above, the rain and its aftermath were indiscriminate in affecting Karachi. Commercial, industrial, and residential areas—both affluent and poor—all suffered, and in some cases for days and weeks. Unified in outrage, the city’s beleaguered residents were offered some immediate help: The army chief and prime minister visited Karachi and pledged military and federal resources to aid with the clean-up and cleared choked drainage systems, and a new administrator for the city has been appointed by the Sindh provincial government.

If there is to be durable change in Karachi, an empowered city government is the most likely path. But city governance is only a third of the local government system, below the federal and provincial tiers. And in Sindh, fresh political battle lines are being drawn with local government elections on the cards. The PTI wants a local government system with more resources and greater autonomy and has legally challenged the system introduced by the PPP, which concentrated power at the provincial tier. For its part, the PPP wants a dispute over the 2017 census resolved before the next local government elections are held in Sindh, which is a potentially fraught issue that will determine the official size of Sindh’s population versus the rest of Pakistan and urban Sindh’s population versus rural Sindh—all issues that affect apportionment of electoral districts at all levels.

An activist judiciary is likely to try and break the political deadlock, but better governance in Karachi is unlikely to be delivered by judicial fiat. Karachi’s troubles are far from climate-related alone: The city is in the grips of a prolonged electricity crisis and a gas crisis is expected to intensify this winter. Perhaps a perfect storm of troubles will force the political leadership to find a modicum of relief for Karachi.

Related Publications

Will the IMF’s $7 Billion Bailout Stabilize Pakistan’s Economy?

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

By: Shahbaz Rana;   Sanjay Kathuria ;   Asfandyar Mir, Ph.D.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $7 billion loan for Pakistan aimed at helping the South Asian nation stabilize its economy. After assuming power earlier this year, Pakistan’s new coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had approached the IMF for the 25th time for a loan. On September 12, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country had met all the conditions set by the IMF to qualify for a new loan. And on September 25, the IMF signed a formal approval of the loan.

Type: Question and Answer

Toward a Durable India-Pakistan Peace: A Roadmap through Trade

Thursday, June 27, 2024

By: Sanjay Kathuria

Despite a three-year long cease-fire along their contested border, trade and civil society engagement between India and Pakistan has dwindled, exacerbating the fragility of their relationship. With recently re-elected governments now in place in both countries, there is a window of opportunity to rekindle trade to bolster their fragile peace, support economic stability in Pakistan, create large markets and high-quality jobs on both sides, and open doors for diplomatic engagement that could eventually lead to progress on more contentious issues.

Type: Analysis

How Have India’s Neighbors Reacted to Its Election?

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

By: Humayun Kabir;   Geoffrey Macdonald, Ph.D. ;   Nilanthi Samaranayake ;   Asfandyar Mir, Ph.D.

Narendra Modi was sworn in on June 9 for his third consecutive term as India’s prime minister. Public polls had predicted a sweeping majority for Modi, so it came as some surprise that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost ground with voters and had to rely on coalition partners to form a ruling government. Although India’s elections were fought mainly on domestic policy issues, there were important exceptions and Modi’s electoral setback could have implications for India’s regional and global policies.

Global Elections & Conflict ;  Global Policy

What Does Further Expansion Mean for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

Thursday, May 30, 2024

By: Bates Gill;   Carla Freeman, Ph.D.

Last week, foreign ministers from member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) gathered in Astana, Kazakhstan. The nine-member SCO — made up of China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — represents one of the largest regional organizations in the world. And with the SCO’s annual heads-of-state summit slated for early July, the ministers’ meeting offers an important glimpse into the group’s priorities going forward. USIP’s Bates Gill and Carla Freeman examine how regional security made its way to the top of the agenda, China’s evolving role in Central Asia and why SCO expansion has led to frustrations among member states.

Global Policy

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Advance articles
• Author Guidelines
• Open Access
• Why Publish?
• About Journal of Islamic Studies
• About the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
• Editorial Board
• Advertising and Corporate Services
• Journals Career Network
• Self-Archiving Policy
• Dispatch Dates
• Terms and Conditions
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic

• < Previous

Zenana: Everyday Peace in a Karachi Apartment Building B y L aura A. R ing

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

Tahir Kamran, Zenana: Everyday Peace in a Karachi Apartment Building B y L aura A. R ing , Journal of Islamic Studies , Volume 19, Issue 2, May 2008, Pages 279–281, https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etn027

• Permissions Icon Permissions

Most of the allusions to Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city and the capital of Sind province spotlight the violence, ethnic as well as sectarian, that has plagued the metropolis since the 1980s. With a population of 14 million, Karachi is more ethnically diverse than any other Pakistani city, and so suffers inter-group conflict and carnage, rendering ‘the shifting coalitions and antagonisms’ between the various communities—Muhajir, Sindhi, Pathan and Punjabi—hard to unravel. The Afghan jihād from 1980s onwards ‘brought to Karachi a flow of arms and drugs which gave birth to a culture of ultra-violence amongst the city youth’, with Russian TT-pistols becoming ‘the hottest commodity in town’ (Laurent Gayer, ‘Guns, Slums, and “Yellow Devil”: A Genealogy of Urban Conflicts in Karachi, Pakistan’, Modern Asian Studies 41/3 (2007; Cambridge), 519). Laura A. Ring's ethnographic study marks a departure from the typical scholarly preoccupation with the tumult and turmoil resulting from political and ethnic difference. Zenana opens a chink into a space that has hitherto been shrouded from the penetrating gaze of social scientists. In the midst of civil strife in the particular setting of Karachi, the micromechanics of coexistence—about the neighbourhoods and colonies that achieved and maintained intergroup peace—is a theme hardly (if ever) touched on by any scholar. With this aim in mind the author undertakes that study in microcosm, exploring zenāna (the female enclosure in the Muslim household) life with all its peculiarities. The locus of the empirical enquiry is a multi-storey building in the Shipyard locality, inhabited by people from multi-ethnic, middle-class backgrounds. Interestingly, the household, apartment building, neighbourhood, backyard, balcony—as sites of political processes—have been problematically investigated, an aspect that adds significantly to the value of this work.

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Short-term Access

To purchase short-term access, please sign in to your personal account above.

Don't already have a personal account? Register

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

• Recommend to your Library

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1471-6917
• Print ISSN 0955-2340
• Copyright © 2024 Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.