History of Karachi « Pakistan Historian

November 14, 2008

History of Karachi: Heart of Pakistan on crossraods of cvilizations

Filed under: History of Pakistan — Moin Ansari @ 4:43 pm
Tags: History of Karachi

This article was written a decade ago and is dated. I will be updating it soon

THE ORIGINS OF THE PORT CITY OF KARACHI AS KALACHI-JO-GOTH

Moin Ansari

The city of Karachi on the Mekran Coast on the Arabian Sea, does not have a long drawn out history. There was no dwelling in Karachi when the Turkish Slave kings were building magnificent buildings in Delhi. There were no inhabitants of Karachi when the East India Company was fighting battles in Calcutta. The city was not even a twinkle in the eye during the magnificent Mughal Rule. The city missed the Industrial Revolution that changed the planet, and slept through the war of Independence. To put it mildly the city of Karachi had no legacy before the city became a Pakistani capital.

…..this city was called Kolachi, named after Mai Kolachi a Sindhi fisherwoman . It was built by Baloch tribes from Balochistan, from Makran, and established as a fishing village and thus we became the city by the sea.

Before the goddess of the waters, before Mai Kolachi called this her home, Karachi was known to the ancient Greeks as Krokola. This was where Alexander the Great rested after his campaign in the Indus Valley. Karachi or Krokola was a port of calm before the madness that would greet Alexander in Babylonia.

Later, Karachi became a brief gem among the jewels of the Talpur crown. It became a port city, coveted by those near and far.

“Charles Napier brought our city, our home, into the Bombay Presidency. The British, with little affection, worked Karachi into the ground. We were enslaved, made to open our harbour and our coast for the ill-gotten wealth of pirates. How little has changed, Karachi. How sad for us. But we are a jewel; we are to be envied for these shores. Kemari, Korangi, Landhi, Malir, how many men and women make up this jewel?

Parsis, Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus how many faiths have congregated here to pay homage to the divine? How many wonderful strains of tolerance we did have here in our city, our home. Baloch, Sindhi, Punjabi, Gujrati, Mujahir, Pathan, Afghan how many brothers we have living here with us under the same sun. Unfortunately, we do not live as one, not as we used to. Divided by districts, neighborhoods, and hate, we brothers and sisters are not as fortunate as we once were. But we are here. We are this city. We, the men and women who live in Karachi, who have lived in Karachi, who work and struggle and toil through disproportionately large KESC bills, through hefty taxes ignored by those who should pay, through hartals, through bunds, through riots and death, we are this city. We are Karachi

Fatima Bhutto “Karachi my city my home”. Sunday Oct. 21,2007

The city of Karachi began as a small and insignificant fishing village populated by Mekranis, and it would have remained a small insignificant footnote of history had it not been for certain individuals who made it into a cosmopolitan magapolis after 1947.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, events that happened thousands of miles away in the New World had a profound effect on the economy of what was then called the Mekran Coast. These are the twelve (12) significant world events that shaped the creation and expansion of Karachi:

1. The Muslim invasion of Mekran Coast by Mohammad Bin Qasim in the early part of the eight century. This small invasion established a Muslim foothold on the Arabian Sea. Islam did not spread in South Asia because of the Arab invasion of the Mekran Coast. The Turkish invasions from North West Asia three hundred years later, and Sufisim actually spread Islam into the rest of the subcontinent.

2. The Discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco De Gama in 1498 converted the Indian ocean into a Portuguese lake. This discovery of the new sea route allowed Britain and other European Nations to use their Naval prowess and expand their empires to “India” and China.

3. The marriage between the Portuguese and the English royalty. In 1661 Catherine of Braganza was married to the English King Charles II. This marriage transferred the Portuguese territory of Bombay to the British. The new port of Bombay under British rule began to compete with the
Portuguese favorite Goa. Bombay eventually grew into the Bombay constituency that included the Mekran Coast.

4. In the early eighteenth century, a group of Mekrani traders moved West from the older “bandargah” of Kharak Bandar to the fishing village of Kalachi-jo-Goth. This is the predecessor of the magapolis called Karachi. These are the humble beginnings of the city.

5. The American Civil War between the North and the South (1860s), forced Britain to use the ports of Karachi and Bombay. Since raw cotton from the Confederate States of America could not fuel the textile mills in the capital of the industrial revolution in Britain, alternative sites for
cotton growing were explored in the British empire. Ports were needed to handle the cotton crop to be exported to Britain. The Punjab was chosen as a site to grow cotton and Bombay was the obvious choice for exporting the raw cotton to Manchester’s bustling cotton milling industry.

6. The construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 allowed the Bombay constituency and the port of Bombay to become a port of call between England and Singapore. No longer would sailors have to go around the Cape of Good Hope to reach the land of spices. As Bombay grew, Karachi was
treated like Cinderella before she was discovered by Prince Charming.

7. The creation of the province of Sindh in 1936. The Nehru Report was published in 1929. Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnahs proposed his own 14 points in opposition to the Nehru Report. Point 9 of Jinnahs 14 points demanded the separation of Sindh from the Bombay Constituency. According to the India Act of 1935, many of the demands of the Muslims were
accepted. A general election took place in which Congress won and formed ministries in 7 out of the 11 provinces. Coalition ministries were formed in Sindh, Bengal and Aasaam. The Bombay Constituency was separated into Muslim Sindh and Hindu Bombay in 1936. Even the creation of Sindh did not promote the city of Karachi. Prince Charming was to come in and rescue Cinderella ten years later.

8. In 1940 the Pakistan Resolution was passed that demanded Pakistan as a separate state formed in the Muslim majority areas of the Subcontinent. Seven years after the Lahore resolution, Pakistan was created. These two events put great emphasis on Karachi.

9. The creation of Pakistan in 1947. As Pakistans capital and only port Karachi became a very important city. The Prince Charming were about to rescue Kalachi Jo Goth.

10. According to the Act of Partition of 1947, all British government servants in India were given the choice to “opt” for Pakistan or India. Thousands of Hindus in Pakistan opted for India and thousands of Muslims in India opted for Pakistan. These were the legal “optees” and millions
others were thrown out of their homes to head for India or to head for the capital of Pakistan. There was tacit approval at the highest levels of the British empire, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League to allow the exchange of populations. 38% of the population of Lahore was Hindu, and 40% of Pakistan was Hindu. Muslims were eagerly exchanged for
Muslims in Pakistan. The influx of hard working, educated, and patriotic. Muslims to the Federal Capital of Pakistan. Karachi sees a lot of development as the new industrious immigrants build a city in the sandy desert of Mekran

11. Creation of One Unit. The move to take the capital away from Karachi to Rawalpindi in 1958

12. The constitution breaks up ONE UNIT in 1973 and makes Karachi the capital of Sind

This is what Compton’s Encyclopedia says about the city of Karachi:

“In the early 18th century Karachi was a small fishing village called Kalachi-jo-Goth. A group of traders moved there from the decaying port of Kharak Bandar about 16 miles (26 kilometers) west. In 1839 it was captured by the British, who annexed it in 1842…… Between 1843 and 1864 a river-steamer service, port improvements, a railway, and a direct telegraph communications link with London were established.

With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Karachi became a principal seaport. When the adjoining region of the Punjab emerged as the granary of India in the 1890s, Karachi became the main outlet for its grain. By 1914 the city had become the largest grain-exporting port of the British Empire.”

As part of the Mekran Coast Karachi became a part of the Bombay Presidency. The American Civil war stopped the export of cotton to the Textile Mills of Manchester England and forced the British to look for
alternative cotton growing sites. Experiments in Punjab were successful, the fields of the Punjab are still growing cotton. The cotton industry of Pakistan owes its existence and its prosperity to the war between the states in the New World. For the Textile industry of Manchester, Bombay was the obvious choice for a port, and Karachi served as a poor cousin to Bombay.

To look at Karachi we have to briefly look at Bombay. This is what Compton’s Encyclopedia says about the city of Bombay:

“The city is said to derive its name from Mumbai Devi, a Hindu goddess, although some claim that Bombay is a corruption of the Portuguese bom baia, meaning “good harbor.” Prior to the establishment of a Portuguese trading post in 1534, the islands were inhabited only by fishermen living in scattered hamlets. The Portuguese did not value the site as much as
Goa, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the south, and they ceded Bombay to England in 1661 as part of the dowry transferred at the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to the English king Charles II.

A large fort, called the Castle, was completed in 1717. The first dock facilities were opened by 1750. Growth was steady, as befitted a city housing the headquarters of the British East India Company (1672-1858). The greatest period of growth, however, occurred in the 1860s. The American Civil War cut off the supply of Southern cotton to British textile mills, and the mill owners turned to western India for their raw material. Somewhat earlier, in 1851, the Indian cotton textile industry itself had been born in Bombay. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made Bombay even more important as a trading center. The building of railways
in the 1860s and 1870s gave Bombay direct connections to all the other major points throughout the country.”

The province of Sindh owes its existence to the fortitude of the leaders of the Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, and Fatima Jinnah.

The intransigence of the leadership of the Indian National Congress forced the Muslims of the subcontinent to ask for a separate province of Sindh. If the Nehru Report had accommodated the leadership of the Muslim League, perhaps Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnah would not have had to propose his own fourteen points. The acceptance of the 14 points was a major victory for the Muslims. After passing the Lahore resolution, there was no stopping the Muslim League. Pakistan was formed in 1947.

As part of the Bombay constituency, Karachi was a small non descript township sandbagged by a few berths where the worst ships could possibly dock. The British never paid any attention to the city of Karachi, it was
a way stop on the way to the important ports of Bombay and Calcutta.

The founder of our nation and a native of Karachi, Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had designated the territory of Karachi district as Federal Capital territory. When Pakistan came into being Karachi was NOT part of the province of Sindh. On the 14th of August the province of Sindh had accepted the fact that Karachi was not part of the province.

The district of Karachi from 1947 to one fateful day in 1968 remained separate and bifurcated from Sindhi political and social institutions. The period of two decades from 47-68 (when Karachi was Federal capital
territory) was the golden period of Karachi and Pakistan. Pakistan was born with ONE textile mill and ONE jute mill. There were no industry in Pakistan. Pakistani offices started with no assets.

KARACHI AND URBAN SINDH PERMEATE WEALTH THROUGHOUT PAKISTAN
Karachi has created wealth where NOTHING existed. The original architects and the founding fathers of the city the bare-footed Mekrani fishermen of Kalachi-jo-Goth had never imagined in their wildest imagination that Karachi, the fishing village would become the little cantonment city that spread a few miles around the few births. The colonial Britisher could never conceive that the little town could become a port that challenged the industrial might of the Bombay constituency.

In British India, before Pakistan, Karachi used to be a quiet town- mostly red bricked government building in the immediate vicinity of the few dilapidating berths that were passed off as a port.

This is what Comptons Encyclopedia says about Karachi:

“In the central part of the city the houses of the British colonial
period are characterized by red tiles and deep verandahs enclosed by
latticed window screens.” Of the 400,000 inhabitants almost all. were
Bombay Hindus who lived in the then posh localities of Jamshed Road,
Clifton, Burns Road etc.

In 1947-48, Pakistan and India were exchanging populations, perhaps on purpose. 5 million West Punjabi Hindus were being traded for 5 million Muslims from India. If this exchange had not taken place Pakistan would still have 40% of its population as Hindu. Pakistan would have survived a few weeks with 40% of the population trying to undo the country.
In 1947, Liari, Krangi, and Liaqatabad were but tent colonies. The Palestinians who moved to other areas STILL live in tent colonies, and the camps of Shabra and Shatila in Lebanon produce little more than hatred.
The immigrants of Karachi had a dream and a vision for Pakistan. They quickly transformed the infrastructure of the city of Karachi. The first few dozen incoming optees and non-optees headed for the federal capital and were settled in two-room “British servant quarter like colonies” called Jacob Lines, Martin Road and others. Former government officials who were Muhajirs were housed in these little quarters and they were happy for they were sacrificing for Pakistan. The rest of the migrants had to fend for themselves and ended up in make shift tent colonies that survive to this day as the slums of Liaqatabad and Orangi town.

During the development of the United States, new immigrants were ushered to newer and newer territories like Oklahoma where they homesteaded and created a healthy life for themselves. While the land from Karachi to Hydrabad and into Balauchistan was uninhabited barren desert, this land was not given to the new immigrants so that they could make a decent life for themselves. The government of Pakistan saw it fit to keep its citizens in tents where many of them still live. The children of slum dwellers have a very different perspective to life. The Palestinians who grew up in tents also have a very different perspective on life.
During the successive military dictatorship the army controlled all the resources and tried its best to develop Kala Shah Kakoo, and other areas. The companies owned by those folks or the government went bankrupt, like the steel industry went bankrupt (except for Ittifaq foundry which survived by destroying the largest ship breaking industry of the world in Gidiani Beach )

In spite of the scores of impediments laid out by the federal government, and in spite of the inefficiency of the government institutions, Karachi prospered. As Karachi, the heart of Pakistan prospered, the entire country prospered.

Karachi grew on “Laissez-Faire-capitalism” and Karachi was an equal opportunity employer. How was wealth created in Karachi?

THE CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE ACCELERATES THE CREATION OF WEALTH
If we trace the accumulation of wealth in urban areas we realize that educational institutions are a very important factor in the standard of living of geographic regions. In the United States, the wealthiest states
are California and New York. Many intellectuals regard the Ivy League and the California educational system as the main engine behind the phenomenal growth of these states. Many of the California industries were actually laboratory experiments funded by research grants. As the experiments became economically viable, they spawned factories, indeed entire industries. The computer industry is one small example of an experiment that started in the laboratory. In South India educational institutions in Gujrat are creating wealth to the tune of two Billion Dollars per annum by exporting their brain-power as computer programmers. Political instability is one great inhibiting factor that can stifle the opportunities that
education can offer. Sri Lank and the Philippines are prime example of literate population that have not achieved their true potential. Sri Lanka has unique geo-political probelms that hinders its growth, but in spite of its ethnic strife, it has eradicated hunger and mal-nutirition, vices that plague the rest of the subcontinent. Philippines now is well on its way to becoming a member of the ASEAN tigers and cubs. The importance of education was recognized early by the Pakistanis who made Karachi their home.

Peter Drucker in his book “Post Capitalist Society” talks about wealth creation by using KNOWLEDGE BASED EMPLOYEES. Wealth was created in Urban Sindh in Pakistan NOT through Federal dole, but rather by CREATIVE use of knowledge.

Schools were started in make shift camps. Slowly, as the people converted their tents into “pakki-colonies” brick buildings, the schools and the knowledge went with them. The poor people of Karachi pooled their own
resources and created PRIVATE schools, a novel idea in the socialistic era when the state was supposed to control all means of production and indoctrination. A lack of resources did not inhibit the spirit of the new
immigrants. Even today Karachi uses its school buildings for second shift and sometimes third shift classes.
Continuing the practice established by Buj Pers, in creating Dayamram Jethmal Science College, and NED, Dawood and others established new centers of excellence and continued to build on the old ones to create and disseminate knowledge. Excellence in education was the motto of the founders. Private schools, colleges, and universities in Karachi grew out of the philanthropy of the newly rich. The Federal Government continued to divert funds to other institutions where they were misused or never used at all. Grants to QAU and KU resemble the ratio 1 to 19. QAU is languishing from misuse while a small town University, Karachi University has propelled political and economic leadership to the world stage.

This is what Comptons Encyclopedia says about Karachi University:

“Karachi has a public school system, but there are many private schools, some of which are associated with religious denominations such as Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. The University of Karachi (1951), located about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the city, is the main educational institution. It has more than 20 graduate departments in arts and sciences as well as a school of business administration. In addition the city has colleges of medicine, engineering, home economics, and numerous polytechnic institutes”.

“Some buildings built after independence in 1947 follow contemporary Western design, while others incorporate features of traditional Muslim architecture. Frere Hall, built in 1865, now houses the National Museum and Liaquat Memorial Library. Other libraries are the Karachi University Library and the National Archives Library. The Town Hall, built of red sandstone, is now the seat of city government. Memon Masjid (1960), also on Bundar Road, is a red sandstone mosque that is typical of Muslim architecture, with friezes and screens patterned in intricate mosaic designs.”

A city is known by its libraries. Karachi boasts many many book stores and libraries. The Liaqat Memorial Library was started in a small shack and is today Pakistans largest and perhaps ONLY library that can be compared to other libraries of the world. Wealth in Karachi was created by cleverly using the newly educated masses and creatively marketing products through out Pakistan and abroad. Karachi and the Pakistanis have the highest number of doctors and lawyers per capita of any group in Pakistan (source THE
HERALD). Michael Porter has written an excellent book ” The competitive Advantage of Nations” in which he describes factors that lead to the industrialization of areas and nations. Porter gives concrete reasons on
why some areas do not develop while others take off. The book discusses the concept of clustering, of how in various countries of the world, a group of industries develop and THRIVE. Porter also discusses reasons on WHY some areas do not take advantage of their resources. The concept of “clustering” and inter-dependence was well understood by the new Pakistani entrepreneurs. Wealth was created in Karachi by one, two, and then a dozen, and then a hundred, and then a thousand individuals who ACCUMULATED capital (by sharing resources) and then wisely using the capital. In the classical Porter model a small group of talented and motivated entrepreneurs recognize a need begin a trade. After being successful they create
employment for others. Cottage industries cropped up and begin supporting small factories. These small factories begin feeding larger factories.

Entire industries were spawned in the vicinity of the mother factory. Competition breeds better quality and improves the quality of life of the inhabitants. Karachi was the subcontinental test case study of the
Clustering Factor One visit to the Panama Center will show even the casual visitor on how wealth is being created even today. The poor brothers get together and buy an old leather sewing machine on a loan. They sell leather jackets, and sell them abroad. Then they pay off the machine. Pretty soon each brother has his own shop and his own machine. These little tailor-shops transform themselves into factories, and they become big exporters. This is what happened in Zainab Market, and Tariq Road and Saddar, and SITE
(one of the largest industrial complexes in the subcontinent and the largest in Pakistan) …. HUNDREDS of miles of factories built by Karachiites for Pakistan and for the well being of the families of the builders. How did Adamjee become rich? How did Edhi build a multi-million Dollar welfare system in Pakistan? How did Dawood create wealth? Their case studies are rags to riches parables of Pakistan. Did Adamjee manipulate
funds from the interior of Sindh?. Did they take advantage of the military industrial complex in Pakistan? Did they build defense colonies and become rich? Were these rich Pakistanis part of the elite funded by the Federal government? The answer to all of the above questions is an obvious no.

These Urban Sindhi Pakistanis showed EXTRA ORDINARY entrepreneurial skills to save and use capital to their advantage. This skill is used by Korean Americans who also share their resources to generate capital and then invest it.

A case study of why a Muhajir called Edhi was successful. Edhi created the largest welfare and first aid system in Asia was successful, while the Jamaat-e-Islami with all its workers and state support was not able to create a first aid system in Pakistan. Edhi was and is an equal opportunity employer where as the JI participated in a policy of exclusion. The reasons were that the educated and hard working people of
urban Sindh supported Edhi and he in turn spread his enterprise and help throughout Pakistan. Karachi was the role model not only for the rest of Pakistan but for Asia.

Karachi was linked to all business of Pakistan. As Karachi grew, she became a magnet for all the other Pakistanis. Punjabis from Chinote came and took advantage of the opportunities. The Memons from Bombay, and the Agha Khanis from areas in India partnered with the Parsis of Iran and the Punjabis of Sargodha to make money. The Saigols, the Habibullahs, the Manshahs, the Mazaris, the Zardaris, the Bhuttos, the Munnoos, all were welcomed to Karachi to make a Rupees. Singapore is so successful because
the Chinese for all over Southeast Asia support the Singapore economy.

Similarly the Muslims from all over the subcontinent supported Karachi. The business acumen of the Muslims of the subcontinent was put to a test and they came forth with flying colors. Multi-million Dollar deals were made on the phone and carried on “the word”- the oldest credit system on the planet. The 22 families and hundreds of other families worked the capitalists system and made money for themselves for Urban Sindh and for Pakistan. A healthy consumer markets were developed. The Balauchi carpet
weavers came to Karachi and began making some of the best carpets in the world. The Pakistanis welcomed the Balauchis by allowing them credit and helping them set up shops. The handi-craftsmen of Kashmir came and began exporting Pakistani handicrafts to Europe and the United States. The Pakistanis welcomed the Kashmiris and showed them the ropes of international trade. The Pathans came and took over the transportation industry. The Pakistanis of Urban Sindh welcomed and indeed encouraged the Pathans in
obtaining a monopoly over the urban transportation system. This is what Comptons Encyclopedia says about Karachi:

“The chief industries are textiles, footwear, metal products, food and beverages, furniture, machinery, and chemicals. The city is an important center for handicrafts and cottage industries that produce handloomed cloth, lace, and carpets; articles made of brass and bell metal (an alloy
of copper and tin); and pottery, leather goods, and gold and silver embroidery. Large industrial areas have developed on the western margin of the city. Several oil refineries are nearby, and there is a pipeline to
Multan. Karachi handles most of Pakistan’s seaborne trade. In the mid-1980s another deep-sea port opened at Qasim, which is 26 miles (42 kilometers) east of Karachi.” As Karachi grew it took Hyderabad and Sukkur and Nawabshah with it. Little towns like Mirpurkhas took off also. Sindhis from the interior of Sindh
litrally came to the towns to look at the lights. They came and were welcomed. They found jobs and got educated and found better jobs. The wealth began to flow to Larakana and other towns too. As Urban Sindh grew the wealth began getting transplanted to Multan and the Saraiki belt in Southern Punjab. The wealth of Karachi was an importatn factor in developing the insecure Sindhi intelligencia that clinged to Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto and demanded special rights and privilages for their growing ranks. 5000 years ago the Indus Valley Civilization existed on the banks of the Indus. In the times gone by in Europe all roads led to Rome. Today
Pakistani town exist on the sides of a roadway that is coming out of Karachi. It is an anthropologists monograph to study the development of Pakistan on the banks of the Pakistans main artery-the two laned road that extends from Karachi through Hydrabad, through Sukkur through Multan through Jhelum, Lahore, Rawalpindi to Peshawar. The Karachi-Peshawar road attracted villagers to come and sell their wares on the well traveled road. Rural Punjab was linked by the Grand Trunk Road, and towns in the

Punjab began growing along the GT Road. Gujrat, Gujranwala, Jhelum were but truck stops on the way to Karachi. These peanut and sugar cane stands grew into tikka-kabab shops and have since then grown into over grown villages. Even today the economy of these town depends on the traffic flowing through them. In 1947 Pakistan had no bank. Muslims were never part of the financial world in the subcontinent. Habib recognized the need and set up a Pakistani bank in Karachi. Instead of building monument to Habib we ignore his outstanding achievements. He is not even mentioned in Pakistani history books. As Karachi grew the Pakistani banking system became sound.

As Habib Bank grew it began providing services all over Pakistan. Agha Hasan Abidi an immigrant from Lucknow (the cultural center of the subcontinent) used his knowledge to set up another bank and he called in UBL. The United Bank began providing competition, and branches began sprouting in little villages and in fields. Small farmers in Sarhad and Balauchistan now had access to capital that could be used to buy farm
equipment, and perhaps compete with East Punjab. Buses and taxis that made profits in Karachi now could also run in Nowshera and Quetta and Faisalabad . As Karachi expanded Karachites began flying to Europe. The national airlines expanded, and began competing with the Indian Airlines. Pakistani organizations began having offices in all of Pakistan and even overseas.
Habib Bank opened offices in New York and London. Pakistan restaurants like Shezan now had the funding to open stores in New York. All this activity began attracting foreign multi-national to Pakistan who saw the
fertile grounds of Karachi as opportunities to make profits. Hundreds flocked to Karachi. Due to the ingenuity of her citizens, Karachi became THE industrial center of Pakistan. 60% of Pakistans industry was spawned by the Pakistanis, the sons and daughters who made Karachi their city home of choice. Hundreds of miles of factories were established on parched desert land on an area misnamed the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) Karachi began paying 70% of the taxes to the national exchequer. >From scratch, the Pakistanis of Karachi created a plethora of industrial machines that satisfied the consumer demands of the city, province and the young nation. Urban Sindhi Muhajir focused on “clustering” and this had a
definite ripple effect on the rest of Pakistan– the Fan industry in Wazirabad, The Textile industry in Faisalabad, the sports good industry in Sialkot all took advantage of the credit available from Karachi. The
industries in the interior of the Punjab could now count on the profits generated by selling their products in the new Karachi middle class that could now afford to buy consumer goods.

Most of Pakistani consumers are the Pakistanis and they reside in Urban Sindh. Today the survival of small Punjabi craftsmen, —the worker in the fan factories of Wazirabad, the carpenter in the sports factories of
Sialkot, and the farmer in interior Sindh is tied in to the consumer in Urban Sindh. The growth of industries and agriculture of Sialkot, Wazirabad, Larkana, Mirpur, and Faisalabad is totally dependent on the
affluent consumers of Urban Sindh. During a short span of three decades, the entrepreneurs of the city of
Karachi (the Adamjees, the Dawoods, the Habibs, and the Agha Hasan Abidis) had transformed a sleepy desert town of Karachi into an international port, a cosmopolitan mecca, the industrial capital of the Western wing of the nation and the nerve center of Pakistan. Karachi not only metamorphacized itself into the heart of Pakistan, it became the city of lights, it became Darul-Islam and began competing with Bombay and had visions of grandeur, comparing itself to the prosperity of Singapore.

“Zeeshan Sahil, an Urdu poet once wrote of our city, our home, ‘It is a lie that in Karachi, after the rain, the sprouting grass doesn’t have blades deep green and soft. Or that the trees do not give shade without the help of clouds… With us in Karachi live birds who fly from trees through the sound of bullets and bombs; perch on walls; always they gather somewhere to pray. Our books don’t wait inside cupboards for termites. Now our hearts swim these seas where once our eyes searched for golden flowers and our hands tear down the walls that once buried us alive’. This, like the calling of Sahil’s birds, is a prayer for us and for our city, our home. Let us await the day that our hands tear down those walls, it won’t be long. 139 Jackson Ave, Edison, NJ

……to be continued……