75 Facts About Karachi

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and the twelfth-largest city in the world.

Karachi is Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city, linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse, as well as one of Pakistan's most secular and socially liberal cities.

Karachi is one of the world's fastest-growing cities, and has significant communities representing almost every ethnic group in Pakistan.

Karachi is considered to be Pakistan's fashion capital, and has hosted the annual Karachi Fashion Week since 2009.

Region around Karachi has been the site of human habitation for millennia.

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In 1770s, Karachi came under the control of the Khan of Kalat, which attracted a second wave of Balochi settlers.

In 1795, Karachi was annexed by the Talpurs, triggering a third wave of Balochi settlers who arrived from interior Sindh and southern Punjab.

Karachi was allowed to build a house for himself in Karachi at that time, but by 1802 was ordered to leave the city.

Karachi was recognized for its strategic importance, prompting the British to establish the Port of Karachi in 1854.

Karachi rapidly became a transportation hub for British India owing to newly built port and rail infrastructure, as well as the increase in agricultural exports from the opening of productive tracts of newly irrigated land in Punjab and interior Sindh.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Karachi's port became an important cotton-exporting port, with Indus Steam Flotilla and Orient Inland Steam Navigation Company established to transport cotton from interior Sindh to Karachi's port, and onwards to textile mills in England.

In 1887, Karachi Port underwent radical improvements with connection to the railways, along with expansion and dredging of the port, and construction of a breakwater.

Karachi's increasing importance as a cosmopolitan transportation hub leads to the influence of non-Sindhis in Sindh's administration.

Karachi was selected as the first capital of Pakistan, and was administered as a federal district separate from Sindh beginning in 1948, the capital of Sindh shifted again Hyderabad to Karachi until the national capital was shifted to Rawalpindi in 1958.

Karachi is located on the coastline of Sindh province in southern Pakistan, along the Karachi Harbour, a natural harbour on the Arabian Sea.

Karachi is built on a coastal plain with scattered rocky outcroppings, hills and marshlands.

West of Karachi city is the Cape Monze, locally known as Ras Muari, which is an area characterised by sea cliffs, rocky sandstone promontories and undeveloped beaches.

Karachi's hills are barren and are part of the larger Kirthar Range, and have a maximum elevation of 528 metres .

Karachi has developed around the Malir River and Lyari Rivers, with the Lyari shore being the site of the settlement for Kolachi.

Karachi has a hot desert climate dominated by a long "Summer Season" while moderated by oceanic influence from the Arabian Sea.

British Karachi was divided between the "New Town" and the "Old Town", with British investments focused primarily on the New Town.

Since Pakistan's independence, Karachi has been the centre of the nation's economy, and remain's Pakistan's largest urban economy despite the economic stagnation caused by sociopolitical unrest during the late 1980s and 1990s.

Today along with Pakistan's continued economic expansion Karachi is ranked third in the world for consumer expenditure growth with its market anticipated to increase by 6.

Karachi is home to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which was rated as Asia's best-performing stock market in 2015 on the heels of Pakistan's upgrade to emerging-market status by MSCI.

Karachi has been the pioneer in cable networking in Pakistan with the most sophisticated of the cable networks of any city of Pakistan, and has seen an expansion of information and communications technology and electronic media.

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Several independent television and radio stations are based in Karachi, including Business Plus, AAJ News, Geo TV, KTN, Sindh TV, CNBC Pakistan, TV ONE, Express TV, ARY Digital, Indus Television Network, Samaa TV, Abb Takk News, Bol TV, and Dawn News, as well as several local stations.

Karachi is the most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse city in Pakistan.

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 neighbourhood, though many of the residents are relatively recent migrants.

Karachi is the largest Bengali speaking city outside Bengal region.

Much of Karachi's citizenry descend from Urdu-speaking migrants and refugees from North India who became known by the Arabic term for "Migrant": Muhajir.

The first Muhajirs of Karachi arrived in 1946 in the aftermath of the Great Calcutta Killings and subsequent 1946 Bihar riots.

Muhajirs continued to migrate to Pakistan throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, with Karachi remaining the primary destination of Indian Muslim migrants throughout those decades.

Karachi is home to a wide array of non-Urdu speaking Muslim peoples from what is the Republic of India.

Karachi is home to a several-thousand member strong community of Malabari Muslims from Kerala in South India.

Karachi is home to the world's largest urban Pashtun population, with more Pashtun citizens than the Peshawar.

Large scale Rohingya migration to Karachi made Karachi one of the largest population centres of Rohingyas in the world outside of Myanmar.

Post-Partition Karachi once had a sizable refugee community from post-revolutionary Iran.

Karachi is a religiously homogeneous city with more than 96 per cent of its population adhering to Islam.

Karachi is overwhelmingly Muslim, though the city is one of Pakistan's most secular cities.

Karachi is served by its own archdiocese, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi.

The Hindu community is split into a more affluent Sindhi Hindu and small Punjabi Hindu group that forms part of Karachi's educated middle class, while poorer Hindus of Rajasthani and Marwari descent form the other part and typically serve as menial and day laborers.

Many streets in central Karachi still retain Hindu names, especially in Mithadar, Aram Bagh, and Saddar.

Karachi has the largest number of Urdu speakers in Pakistan.

The number of Sindhi speakers in Karachi is growing as many are moving from rural areas to the city.

Karachi is served by 6 Signal-Free Corridors which are designed as urban express roads to permit traffic to transverse large distances without the need to stop at intersections and stoplights.

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Karachi is the terminus of the M-9 motorway, which connects Karachi to Hyderabad.

Karachi is the terminus of the N-5 National Highway which connects the city to the historic medieval capital of Sindh, Thatta.

Karachi is linked by rail to the rest of the country by Pakistan Railways.

Pakistani Government is developing the Karachi Metrobus project, which is a 6-line.

Karachi's airport serves as a hub for the flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, as well as for Air Indus, Serene Air and airblue.

The City of Karachi Municipal Act of 1933 transformed the city administration into the Karachi Municipal Corporation with a mayor, a deputy mayor and 57 councillors.

In 2001, during the rule of General Pervez Musharraf, five districts of Karachi were merged to form the city district of Karachi, with a three-tier structure.

In July 2011, city district government of Karachi was reverted its original constituent units known as District Municipal Corporations .

Municipal Administration of Karachi is run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which is responsible for the development and maintenance of main arteries, bridges, drains, several hospitals, beaches, solid waste management, as well as some parks, and the city's firefighting services.

Position of Commissioner of Karachi was created, with Iftikhar Ali Shallwani serving this role.

City-planning in Karachi, therefore, is not locally directed but is instead controlled at the provincial level.

Karachi is a centre of research in biomedicine with at least 30 public hospitals, 80 registered private hospitals and 12 recognized medical colleges, including the Indus Hospital, Lady Dufferin Hospital, Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Civil Hospital, Combined Military Hospital, PNS Rahat, PNS Shifa, Aga Khan University Hospital, Liaquat National Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Holy Family Hospital and Ziauddin Hospital.

Karachi is home to Pakistan and South Asia's largest shopping mall, Lucky One Mall which hosts more than two hundred stores.

Karachi is home to several of Pakistan's most important museums.

Karachi is home to some of Pakistan's important cultural institutions.

Karachi is home to groups such as Thespianz Theater, a professional youth-based, non-profit performing arts group, which works on theatre and arts activities in Pakistan.

Karachi is a tourist destination for domestic and international tourists.

Parks and Resorts: Major greenspaces in Karachi include Bagh Ibne Qasim, Boat Basin Park, Mazar-e-Quaid Park, Hill Park, Jheel Park, Safari Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Zamzama Park and Bahria Town Central Park.

Sometimes stated to be amongst the world's most dangerous cities, the extent of violent crime in Karachi is not as significant in magnitude as compared to other cities.

In 2016, the number of murders in Karachi had dropped to 471, which had dropped further to 381 in 2017.

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Karachi had become widely known for its high rates of violent crime, but rates sharply decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM political party, and Islamist militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers.

Urban planning and service delivery have not kept pace with Karachi's growth, resulting in the city's low ranking on livability rankings.

Karachi has a collection of buildings and structures of varied architectural styles.

Karachi acquired its first neo-Gothic or Indo-Gothic buildings when Frere Hall, Empress Market and St Patrick's Cathedral were completed.

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture is one of the prime examples of Architectural conservation and restoration where an entire Nusserwanjee building from Kharadar area of Karachi has been relocated to Clifton for adaptive reuse in an art school.

One of the unique cultural elements of Karachi is that the residences, which are two- or three-story townhouses, are built with the front yard protected by a high brick wall.

The first ever international cricket match in Karachi was held on 22 November 1935 between Sindh and Australian cricket teams.

Karachi is the place that innovated tape ball, a safer and more affordable alternative to cricket.

When it comes to sports Karachi has a distinction, because some sources cite that it was in 1877 at Karachi in India, where the first attempt was made to form a set of rules of badminton and likely place is said to be Frere Hall.

Karachi has hosted seven editions of the National Games of Pakistan, most recently in 2007.