Karachi, Pakistan 2018

Karachi started as a small fishing village in the early 18th century inhabited by tribes from Balochistan and Makran. As the population grew, a port to trade with other countries opened. In the mid 19th Century, the British caught on to the success of the trading port and overtook the area to establish their own principal port. Port infrastructure was then built up along with a military installation and even telegraph communications from Karachi to London was implemented. After World War I, Britain established manufacturing and service businesses in Karachi. An airport built in 1924 made Karachi the main entry port to India. In 1947 Pakistan became its own independent nation from Britain and partitioned from India. An influx of migration took place due to the economic opportunities that Karachi had to offer. Karachi has not only attracted migrants for economic reasons but for refuge as well, many migrated from India after the Partition and from Afghanistan during the Soviet War in the 1980s. Unfortunately city planning did not keep up with the population explosion. This resulted in large scale developments of informal housing known as katchi abadis. Today, Karachi is still a premier business and industrial hub. This web project explores the conditions of Karachi today.