April 23, 2000
The News on Sunday
Understanding a megacity
‘Understanding Karachi’ gives a comprehensive knowledge of history of the area and the growth of city without which it is just not possible to properly handle the problems that bedevil the city. Review by
Sarwat Ali
T he most troubled city of Pakistan is also its largest. Karachi has been so rocked by one problem after another, particu larly in the last three decades, that for many its continuing malaise seems beyond any solu-tion. But there are a few enlight ened citizens and professionals who think otherwise. One of them is Arif Hasan, an architect who has given a broader mean ing to his profession going beyond brick and mortar, to questions of the relationship between buildings and planning of cities to the basic needs of the great majority of the citizens who inhabit it.
In his recently published book ‘Understanding Karachi’, he makes it quite clear that with out a comprehensive knowledge of history of the area and the growth of city it is just not possi ble to properly handle the prob-lems that bedevil the city that was once considered to be a haven of peace with a thriving
Understanding Karachi Arif Hasan City Press, Karachi, 1999 Pages: 175 Price (hc): Rs. 295
cosmopolitan culture. The present site of Karachi
was chosen due to the silting up of the estuary of the Hub River. The face of the new settlement facing the sea was called Kharadar and that facing Lyari river was called Mithadar. The basic consideration of security, as it was protected by the man grove marshes on the east and south west, the sea to the west and south west and the Lyari River to the north and west was the reason for the selection of the site. But close to the settle ment were temples of Mahadev, the Ram Bagh, BOO the tombs of Abdullah Shah and his brother Yousaf Shah, the monastery of Mangopir and the tomb of Morerio, the hero of Shah Latif’s Sur Ghato who lived in the sixteenth century capital of Raja Diborai.
Though the city fell to the Talpurs in the late eighteen cen-tury, the British were on the march and captured Karachi in 1843 to facilitate the landing of their troops for the First Afghan War which was part of the great game that was being staged between them and the Czars. After the formal proclamation of the Crown Rule, Karachi was made the district headquarters of the Bombay Presidency, troops were stationed, cantonment was established, civil lines were laid out and the city was divided between the European and the
native sections. During the second half of the
tre.
Two satellite towns were
nineteenth century some of the famous buildings came up. With the American Civil War and the opening of the Suez Canal Karachi became the closest port of call from Britain which led to the expansion of the port, the laying of the railways and the establishment of the irrigation network, all linking Karachi to other parts of India. A tramway was also established but discon tinued when the people objected to the noise made by steam loco-motives which scared the ani mals. In 1924 the first airport in the subcontinent too was com missioned and in 1935 with the separation from Bombay it became the capital of the new province of Sindh. During the second world war it became the military base and the port for the Russian Front.
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of four and a half lakh The partition and the migration turned a city to twelve lakh overnight, and the Sindhi speaking were reduced to just nine percent as compared to the Urdu speaking who were more than fifty percent. It was also made the capital of the country and was separated from Sindh, which can be called the genesis of the Karachi Sindhi problem.
The refugees settled in the properties left by fleeing Hindus and the open areas with Saddar became the centre of the city. To tackle the problems of this large mass of people, MRVP, a Swedish firm prepared the first Master Plan but it was never implement-ed. Greater Karachi Resettlement Plan implemented during Ayub Khan’s regime saw the capital being shifted out to Islamabad
and the refugees and working classes from other cities discour-aged from living in the city cen-
developed; Landhi Korangi to the East and New Karachi to the North at a distance of twenty five kilometers. As it became impos sible to build new squatter settle ments within the metropolitan area the unmet demand for hous-ing was met with the creation of squatter settlements along the roads connecting Landhi Korangi and New Karachi. These were developed by middlemen who in later years were to become the city’s main supplier of land for housing the poor. This also caused Karachi perennial transport problem and converted a compact high densi ty class city to a low density sprawl with the poor living far away from the city centre, and the rich in its immediatel vicinity. Between 1951 and 1972 the population of the city increased by 217 per-cent. After Kotri Barrage was commissioned Indus Delta shrank and as large number of villages were left without drink ing water many migrated to Karachi.
Ayub’s industrialisation poli-cies and green revolution dou bled economic activity and he patronised the people of his area to business, industrial and trans port activities in Karachi. Ayub believed in a centralised system and he banned regional. nal lan guages for education purposes and closed down Sindhi presses, Since the refugee population supported these measures it increased tension between Urdu speaking and Sindhi speaking
camps. In the Master Plan for 1975-85 only the roads network was built and that too in a substan-
dard manner. The housing plan for low income was a complete failure as the plots were too expensive for the target groups as well as the process of acquir ing them was too cumbersome. No legal cover was given to the plan as well.
During Bhutto era the regu larisation and upgradation of Katchi Abadis became a political gimmick but he also wanted to develop it as a cosmopolitan cen-tre to attract finances from the Middle East. Many high rises were built and the developers’ mafia became even stronger. During the martial law and subsequent peri-od land and con-struction con-tracts have been used for political advantages and favours. Even the latest Karachi Development Plan 2000 has no legal cover and therefore unwittingly caters more to the interest groups rather than civic agencies. As no monitoring and related planning activities have been carried out with con stant supply of data it failed to provide institutionalised arrange ment to stop political patronage, corruption and fragmented development between the vari
Understanding Karachi
ous agencies. One of the remedies pro posed in the book that the city of Karachi can be served better by a metropolitan government is far from being realised as no move has been initiated as to what it will be like, given the varied eth nic complexion of the city. The various agencies continue pursu ing grandiose plans which serve various interest groups rather than the needs of the people and
the call for the creation of space for interaction between politi-cians, government planners, bureaucrats, formal/informal interest groups and service providers can only be welcome. There can be no truck either
with the weaker groups playing a more active role in this interac tion as the security of tenure and building of infrastructure can be best achieved if the communities organise themselves and form associations. Eminent profes-sionals, concerned citizens belonging to upper middle and elite classes, industrialists, repre sentatives of women organisa-tions are gradually involving themselves in the NGO work for the creation of better physical, social, environmental conditions but the professional and trade organisations have continued to protect the financial interests of its members.
For Arif Hasan the existing capacity and capability of the agencies can be enhanced by promoting transparency and accountability. If all plans are advertised and reviewed by a committee which includes the representative of relevant profes-sion, interest group, NGOs, the representatives of victims and beneficiaries, things will surely look up and take a turn for the better.
The book is well-intentioned and if the methods of consulta-tion and interaction are applied. on the national scale many of the country problems in various sec tors too can be resolved. The wealth of statistics and other information regarding the city of Karachi, however, is the real asset of the book. Such studies need to be conducted about other cities of the country as well which too are facing myriad problems which are becoming unliveable by the day.