best: Karachi largest city of Pakistan

Monday, 29 August 2011

Karachi largest city of Pakistan

Karachi (Karācī Sindhi: ڪراچي, Urdu: کراچی), is the largest city, main seaportand financial centre of Pakistan, and the capital of the province of Sindh. With an estimated population of about 18 million, Karachi is one of the world's largest cities in terms of population, the 13th largest urban agglomeration, the 4th largest metropolitan area in the world, and the 2nd largest city within the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and trade and is home to Pakistan's largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry,entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a major hub of higher education in South Asia and the wider Islamic world.

Karachi is ranked as a Beta world city. It was the original capital of Pakistan until the construction of Islamabad and is the location of the Port of Karachi and Port Bin Qasim, two of the region's largest and busiest ports. After the independence of Pakistan, the city population increased dramatically when hundreds of thousands of Urdu-speaking migrants or Muhajirs from India, East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and other parts of South Asia came to settle in Karachi.

The city is spread over 3,527 km² (1,362 sq mi) in area, almost four times bigger than Hong Kong. It is locally known as the "City of Lights" (روشنیوں کا شہر) and "The bride of the cities" (عروس البلاد) for its liveliness, and the "City of the Quaid" (شہرِ قائد), having been the birth and burial place of Quaid-e-Azam (Muhammad Ali Jinnah), the founder of Pakistan, who made the city his home after Pakistan's independence.

History:

The area of Karachi was known to the ancient Greeks by many names: Krokola, the place where Alexander the Great camped to prepare a fleet for Babylonia after his campaign in the Indus Valley; 'Morontobara' (probably Manora island near Karachi harbour), from whence Alexander's admiral Nearchus set sail; and Barbarikon, a port of the Bactrian kingdom. It was later known to the Arabs as Debal, the starting point for Muhammad bin Qasim and his army in 712 AD. Karachi was founded as "Kolachi" by Baloch tribes from Balochistan and Makran, who established a small fishing community in the area. Descendants of the original community still live in the area on the small island of Abdullah Goth, which is located near the Karachi Port. The original name "Kolachi" survives in the name of a well-known Karachi locality named "Mai Kolachi". The city was visited by Ottoman AdmiralSeydi Ali Reis in 1550s and mentioned in his book Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries), 1557 AD.The present city started life as a fishing settlement when a Balochi fisher woman called Mai Kolachi took up residence and started a family. The village that later grew out of this settlement was known as Kolachi-jo-Goth (Village of Kolachi in Sindhi). By the late 1720s, the village was trading across the Arabian Sea with Muscat and the Persian Gulf region. A small fort was constructed for its protection, armed with cannons imported from Muscat. The fort had two main gateways: one facing the sea, known as Kharra Darwaaza (Brackish Gate) (Kharadar) and the other facing the Lyari River known as the Meet'ha Darwaaza (Sweet Gate) (Mithadar). The location of these gates correspond to the modern areas of Kharadar (Khārā Dar) and Mithadar (Mīṭhā Dar).

karachi in word warr-II (1943)

The 1970s saw major labour struggles in Karachi's industrial estates, (see: Karachi labour unrest of 1972). The 1980s and 1990s saw an influx of refugees from the Soviet war in Afghanistan into Karachi, they were followed in smaller numbers by refugees escaping from Iran. Political tensions between the Muhajir and other native groups (e.g. Sindhis, Punjabis, Pashtuns, and others), erupted and the city was wracked with political and ethnic violence. The period from 1992 to 1994 is regarded as the bloodiest period in the history of the city, when the Army commenced its Operation Clean-up against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Most of these tensions have now simmered down. Today, Karachi continues to be an important financial and industrial centre and handles most of the overseas trade of Pakistan and the world, mainly the Asian countries. It accounts for a lion's share of the GDP of Pakistan, and a large proportion of the country's white collar workers.