A Study on Metropolitan Fringe Development in Karachi, Focusing on Informal Land Subdivision
Excerpt from this report: The inadequate and inappropriate response of government policies to the problem of housing the poor has led to the development of what is termed an “informal sector” in housing. This sector...
The Low Cost Sanitation Programme of the OPP
The Low Cost Sanitation Programme was the first programme of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP). As a result of its research and extension effort 1683 lanes out of 3052 lanes have acquired an underground drainage...
OPP Six Questions
This paper will limit itself to answering a number of questions which have been raised by professionals, social workers and the public at large.
The MQM Factor
For the first time since the creation of Pakistan, the Urdu-speaking Sindhis, or mohajirs as they are called, have sought to identify themselves with the larger interests of Sind. Their new leadership, born and bred...
The Sohrab Goth Massacre
The Sohrab Goth Massacre began on the twelfth of December 1987, two days before the Aligarh Colony killings. It was not a massacre of human life. It was a massacre of homes, of economic activity...
The Profits of Doom
“Let us not complicate things. It is really very simple. If you control the poppy fields,Karachi, and the road that links the two you will be so rich that you will control Pakistan,army or no...
Karachi’s Godfathers
If their statements are to be believed, it seems that leaders of public opinion, political parties and ethnic groups all agree that the real cause of Karachi’s recurrent ethnic riots is a lack of civic...
Karachi’s Disappearing Troughs
Before the mid-1920s, almost all transport in Karachi was animal-drawn. Bullock, donkey and camel carts were used for carrying cargo and as transportation for the poor, while the rich moved around in their horse-drawn victorias...
The Indigenous Architecture of the Northern Areas
The people of the Northern Areas (NA) are, by and large, farmers. In almost all the areas visited there is no hereditary occupational structure in the villages, except for the Beyricho, who are singers and...
The Twilight of the Waderas
Highway robberies; kidnappings; carrying of unlicensed guns in the streets; private armies; an impotent administration; closed universities; non-collection of revenue; failure to maintain canals, drainage channels and roads; migration of middle landlords and capitalists to...
