Karachi Pakistan

Description: Karachi is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the largest city in Pakistan and the 12th largest in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast and formerly served as the capital of Pakistan.

Ranked as a beta-global city, it is Pakistan’s premier industrial and financial centre, with an estimated GDP of over $200 billion as of 2021. Karachi is considered Pakistan’s most cosmopolitan city, and among the country’s most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse regions, as well as one of the country’s most progressive and socially liberal cities.

Population: 21,4500,000

Demographics: The oldest portions of modern Karachi reflect the ethnic composition of the first settlement, with Balochis and Sindhis continuing to make up a large portion of the Lyari neighborhood, though many of the residents are relatively recent migrants. Following Partition, large numbers of Hindus left Pakistan for the newly independent Dominion of India (later the Republic of India), while a larger percentage of Muslim migrant and refugees from India settled in Karachi.

The city grew 150% during the ten year period between 1941 and 1951 with the new arrivals from India, who made up 57% of Karachi’s population in 1951. The city is now considered a melting pot of Pakistan and is the country’s most diverse city. Karachi is the largest Bengali speaking city outside Bengal region. In 2011, an estimated 2.5 million foreign migrants lived in the city, mostly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

History: The region around Karachi has been the site of human habitation for millennia. Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites have been excavated in the Mulri Hills along Karachi’s northern outskirts. These earliest inhabitants are believed to have been hunter-gatherers, with ancient flint tools discovered at several sites. The expansive Karachi region is believed to have been known to the ancient Greeks, and may have been the site of Barbarikon, an ancient seaport which was located at the nearby mouth of the Indus River.

Karachi may also have been referred to as Ramya in ancient Greek texts. Under Mirza Ghazi Beg, the Mughal administrator of Sindh, the development of coastal Sindh and the Indus River Delta was encouraged. Under his rule, fortifications in the region acted as a bulwark against Portuguese incursions into Sindh.

In 1553–54, Ottoman admiral Seydi Ali Reis, mentioned a small port along the Sindh coast by the name of Kaurashi which may have been Karachi. The Chaukhandi tombs in Karachi’s modern suburbs were built around this time between the 15th and 18th centuries. 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 settlement. In 1770s, Karachi came under the control of the Khan of Kalat, which attracted a second wave of Balochi settlers.

The British East India Company captured Karachi on 3 February 1839 after HMS Wellesley opened fire and quickly destroyed Manora Fort, which guarded Karachi Harbour at Manora Point. Karachi’s population at the time was an estimated 8,000 to 14,000,and was confined to the walled city in Mithadar, with suburbs in what is now the Serai Quarter. The Portuguese Goan community started migrating to Karachi in the 1820s as traders. The majority of the estimated 100,000 who came to Pakistan are primarily concentrated in Karachi. Sindh’s capital was shifted from Hyderabad to Karachi in 1840 when Karachi was annexed to the British Empire after Major General Charles James Napier captured the rest of Sindh following his victory against the Talpurs at the Battle of Miani. Following the 1843 annexation, on 17 February the entire province was amalgamated into the Bombay Presidency for the next 93 years, and Karachi remain the divisional headquarter.

At the dawn of independence following the success of the Pakistan Movement in 1947, On 15 August 1947 Capital of Sindh shifted from Karachi to Hyderabad and Karachi was made the national capital of Pakistan. The 1970s saw a construction boom funded by remittances and investments from the Gulf States, and the appearance of apartment buildings in the city. The 1980s and 1990s saw an influx of almost one million Afghan refugees into Karachi fleeing the Soviet–Afghan War. This was followed by refugees escaping from post-revolution Iran.

The 2010s saw another influx of hundreds of thousands of Pashtun refugees fleeing conflict in North-West Pakistan and the 2010 Pakistan floods. By this point Karachi had become widely known for its high rates of violent crime, usually in relation to criminal activity, gang-warfare, sectarian violence, and extrajudicial killings. Recorded crimes sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM party, and Islamist militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers. As a result of the operation, Karachi went from being ranked the world’s 6th most dangerous city for crime in 2014, to 128th by 2022.

Elevation: 32 m

Climate: Hot desert climate. Average annual temperature in Karachi is 26 C (78 F), the average for July is 31 C (88 F), the average for January is 19 C (66 F).

Attractions: Dolmen Mall Clifton, Mohatta Palace Museum, Mazar E-Quaid, Free Hall, Hawks Bay, Clifton Beach, Empress Market

Airports: Jinnah International Airport KHI

Distance To City Centre: 20 km

Commute Length: 30 min

Average Transportation Cost: 30 USD

Traffic Hours: 6 am – 9 am, 6 pm – 9 pm