Sindh History of Karachi

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History of Karachi


The capital of Sindh province, Karachi is Pakistan’s bustling center of commerce and industry, the largest metropolis offers a variety of pleasant attractions: wide sunny beaches, deep-sea fishing, yachting, golf and horse racing all year. There are posh and inexpensive hotels and a variety of eating places, from Pakistani food to Western and European cuisine. Its markets and bazaars offer an endless variety of exciting shopping including indigenous handicrafts, particularly rugs and carpets of rare design and beauty. Karachi also has a number of tourist attractions and landmarks. Most of the international airlines operate their direct flights to many destinations in the world from the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport.
Karachi is the center of education and other cultural and social activities. A great number of prestigious educational institutions are functioning here. It is an ultra-modern city, with most
modern cinemas, recreational clubs, hotels and restaurants. There are beautiful beaches at
Sand spit, Sommiani and Hawks Bay. These places are excellent picnic resorts with their
tranquil surroundings and provide an atmosphere to rest and relax.
The opportunities for yachting, water-skiing and cruising are also available here. The presence of huge and tall
buildings has given it a grandeur and majestic appearance.
Pakistan's commercial centre and largest city is a sprawling place of bazaars, hi-tech electronic shops, scurf-infested older buildings and modish new hotels. Its sights are spread far and wide, so a taxi or rickshaw is necessary to travel between them.
A good place to start is the Quaid-i-Azam Mausoleum, a monument to Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, which can be charitably described as distinctive. More impressive is the remarkable white-marbled Defence Housing Society Mosque. The single dome, claimed to be the largest of its kind in the world, will make your gum cleave to the roof of your mouth. Above the mosque is Honeymoon Lodge, birthplace of the Aga Khan.
Karachi has an state-of-the-art international airport where flights from all over the world land and
take off. It has thus become the "Gateway to Pakistan". It is a sea-port which is the source of
conducting international trade and business. It is considered as commercial and industrial capital
of Pakistan. It has played a vital and dominant role in erecting Pakistanis economy on firm basis.
Karachi is a Cosmopolitan city with people coming from different parts of the world. It is a
mingling of old and new, east and west. It has absorbed the charm and beauty of modern and conventional way of life.
Other sights include the Holy Trinity Cathedral and St Andrew's Church (both good examples of Anglo-Indian architecture), the city's zoo, and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence, hills where the dead are traditionally exposed to vultures. South of the city is Clifton, a former British hangout and now an exclusive coastal corner for the local wealthy, the popular but rather drab Clifton Beach, and Manora Island, a less-crowded beach resort
Saddar, the city centre, is the main shopping area with thriving markets selling carpets, fur coats, leather jackets, snake-skin purses, silk scarves and the country's biggest range of handicrafts. It also has a number of food stalls and cheap restaurants and the majority of budget hotels. Nightlife in Karachi is an oxymoron.
Karachi enjoys great importance because the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah was born here. He received his early education in this great city. The Quaid-i-Azam
is buried here. The Quaid¹s mausoleum is the most important monument in Karachi. It stands
in the heart of the city with its splendor combining classical oriental architecture with modern
way of designing. His birth place, the Wizard Mansion, has been preserved as a national archive.
There is a great Steel Mill established in Karachi with the assistance of U.S.S.R. It is the only steel
factory of the country which is playing an important role in stabilizing country's economy. The
Government is planning to develop few more picnic spots in Karachi for the attraction of the tourists.
A proposal has been made to establish Hub Lake Tourist Complex at the cost of Rs. 200 million
which is 56 km from Karachi. The proposal has been submitted to the Sindh and Baluchistan Governments and the Federal Tourism Department. It will be the most fascinating recreational resort which is likely to attract a large number of tourists and the local people.
Karachi, is a friendly cheerful city of eight million cosmopolitan people. Its wide streets, bright lights and miles of golden beaches more than make up for its chaotic traffic and quick changing city scope.
Karachi boasts all the trappings of a modern metropolis. Multi-starred hotels, glamorous shopping centers, exclusive private clubs, a refreshingly green golf course, facilities for sea sports, aerobics
and yoga, elegant restaurants, and other similar essential luxuries. At fancy office buildings, textile magnates and other seths including many multinationals, conduct their business.
Empress Market, a quaint Victorian structure with Mughal and Gothic touches is worth a visit
even if you aren't sout to buy anything. Here you get a glimpse of striving struggling humanity,
Third World style, determinedly trying to board buses, sell produce, catch your attention, make
a statement, shout a slogan, creating in the process a noisy turmoil reflecting raw energy. Top
quality fruit and vegetables are sold in the stalls inside the market. Fish, poultry, meat, talking
and singing birds, guinea fowl, partridges and quail, just about everything is available here.
The National Museum located not far from the city's many major and other more modest hotels
houses artifacts from the 8000 year old city of Mahrgarh where women wore their hair in a
variety of unique styles. These elaborate hairdos of old would do credit to any coiffeur in the
west today. Seals, Moenjadaro satiates, the coins gallery and collection of rare manuscripts
shed revealing light on the past history of the country.
PLANETARIUM, If the night sky thrills you and the stars and planets intrique you, Karachi offers
the facility of a modern planetarium, built and gifted to the people of Karachi by the national
airline - PIA. Regular programmers are shown every afternoon and evening except Sundays.
There are art galleries galore, and dozens of boutiques and specialty shops offering a dazzling
array of choices. For a mega-city and center of business and industry, Karachi has a wonderfully
relaxed and informal air. Even though life is fast nobody appears to be in a rush. People have time
for one another.
In keeping with city's proletarian ways, entertainment tends to be simple and colorful. Crabbing in
the Arabian Sea in sailboats, camel rides on the seaside, cricket matches on any convenient open space. Juma or Friday bazaars now offer, besides fresh farm produce and other necessities, an opportunity for community socializing.
Eating out being a national pastime, delicious food is available even in the many wayside restaurants
that dot the city. The Boating Basin area offers the widest possible variety of eating choices, mainly outdoors, and visitors relish the place's sociable, sea breezy ambiance. Burns Road is another
popular center of gastronomically delights.
Karachi's sights, both historic and natural, are found mostly in and out-side its environs. However,
the city does offer several buildings of architectural interest, many displaying an extraordinary
jumble of Victorian, Gothic and Rajputana styles resulting in a pleasing aesthetic experience.
Worth seeing are the mausoleum of the Quaie-e-Azam Mohammad Ali jinnah, the nation's
founder, the Tooba Mosque, the many old churches, Frere Hall, the Karachi Municipal Corporation
and the Karachi Port Trust buildings and the Jahangir Kothari Pavilion.
If travel outside of Karachi is possible, then the archaeological site of Moenjodaro - once a city of an Indus Valley civilisation - and the Chaukundi tombs are well worth a visit.
Being the commercial and unofficial capital of Pakistan, flights in and out of Karachi are numerous but it's worth checking the ETA of your flight. Karachi is at the epicentre of political and ethnic tensions; a tension that is cranked up to knife edge proportions when combined with rival drug gangs, political assassinations and terrorist bombings. If your flight touches down in the middle of the night, it would be wise to wait until sunrise before catching a taxi. For the same reason catching buses should be avoided for the foreseeable future. Buy a train ticket instead: trains run from Karachi to most major destinations.​
 

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