TWINKLE, TWINKLE MEGA STAR: MEGACITY KARACHI, FUTURE CAPITAL OR NOT

Abstract

In history cities have held prominent places either because of their political or commercial impact or their social and cultural contributions, same is the case of Karachi that also claims to have deep rooted heritage and an intriguing civilization to its name. This city was founded by a Hindu tradesman, was named after a local woman ‘Mai Kolachi’. The contemporary Karachi’s journey can be written down in four clear stages. First stage is of the colonial Karachi, secondly Karachi as the capital of a newly born country, third comes a disarrayed Karachi in search of its identity and finally the most recent stage of it as the 7th largest megacity of the world. The objective of this paper is to view Karachi in light of these stages and try to understand why it was chosen as the capital of Pakistan and what circumstances occurred to shift capital to Islamabad. Does Karachi still have the potential to become the capital of Pakistan again? This issue weighs heavy in the politics and some political parties have already used it for their election campaigns. Our leaders claim that they will make Karachi the future capital of Pakistan; is this a feasible or a doable claim; this paper aims to answer this question.

Keywords: Megacity Karachi, Contemporary Karachi, Karachi Future Capital

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-3-12