Karachi

Karāchi, city in southern Pakistan, capital of Sind Province, on the Arabian Sea, at the northwestern edge of the Indus River delta. The hub of a sprawling metropolitan area, Karāchi is the nation’s largest city and its chief transportation, financial, commercial, and manufacturing center. Most of the international trade of Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan pass through the city’s busy modern port, centered on the island of Kiamāri. Major highways and railroads focus on the city, and the modern airport here is a stopover and refueling point for intercontinental flights. Among the many products of Karāchi are steel, textiles, chemicals, refined petroleum, footwear, machinery, handicrafts, and processed food. The city also is an important banking center and has a stock exchange. The University of Karāchi (1951) and NED University of Engineering and Technology (1922) are here. The tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, is a landmark.

An old settlement, Karāchi was a small fishing and trade center when captured by the British in 1839 and annexed three years later. Under British rule, it became the chief outlet for Indus Valley cotton and grain exports. Karāchi was the capital of newly independent Pakistan from 1947 until 1959, when it was replaced by the provisional capital of Rāwalpindi (Islāmābād became Pakistan’s permanent capital in 1967.) During the early years of independence Karāchi grew rapidly as the chief port and industrial center of West Pakistan, and many Muslim refugees from India settled here. Since the 1980s the city has been the site of violent eruptions between the rival political, religious, and ethnic groups. Population (1998) 9,269,265.