Development & Poverty
Origins of the OPP Sanitation Programme
Sometime in 1973, I received a phone call from a person who called himself the ‘Chor (robber) man’ of the federal government’s Appropriate Technology Development Cell (ATDC). He wanted to see me immediately. I told...
The Judiciary and the Poor
The judgement of the Supreme Court permitting the demolition of houses along the Gujjar and Orangi Nalas has reinforced the opinion of a number of civil society organizations that Karachi’s planning and policy decisions are...
Social Realities
DUE to the implementation of the Oct 22, 2019, Sindh High Court judgement ordering the removal of all ‘encroachments’ on public space, major changes in human relations have taken place in my neighbourhood in Karachi....
Development Ethics
AKHTAR Hameed Khan, the celebrated South Asian social scientist, died 20 years ago in October 1999 in America. He was buried in the compound of Karachi’s Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute — in...
Anti-poor Bias?
IT is estimated that Karachi’s informal economy is between 30 to 40 per cent of the city’s total economy. Most of it consists of informal markets scattered at various locations where businesses can be carried...
Icon Remembered
DR Akhtar Hameed Khan, the iconic South Asian social scientist, died in the US on Oct 8, 1999. His body was brought to Karachi and buried in the compound of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP),...
The Crisis of Urban Housing
Pakistan is the seventh-most populist country in the world. According to the 2017 census, its population is 207.7 million and has grown at the rate of 2.4 percent per year in the intercensal period. Its...
‘Honour’ Killings
BY all accounts, over the last two decades ‘honour’ killings have increased manifold; they are going to increase even more in the foreseeable future. This is because a gender-segregated patriarchal society, which has traditionally used...
Eclipse of Feudalism
WITHIN Pakistani intellectuals and academia, it is agreed that Pakistani society has changed. However, there is little articulation of the fundamental nature and processes of change and how public policy should address it. The most...
Road map needed
RESEARCH by the Urban Resource Centre Karachi has established that in the absence of a reasonable transport system a large percentage of women do not work, children often do not get to school, time and...
Urban Land Reform
OVER the last two years, there have been numerous seminars, workshops and happenings around Karachi issues. The dominant theme has been one of nostalgia. Senior citizens have spoken about a once liberal city of bars,...
Impacts of Economic Crises and Reform on the Informal Textile Industry in Karachi
To date, no empirical research has examined the local impacts of economic crises and reform on cities in Pakistan, including Karachi. This study addresses this gap by examining how the textile industry – as one...
