Karachi

Karachi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It is Pakistan’s only port and the major contributor to the country’s economy. In addition, it is also a diverse city with its population politically divided along ethnic lines. These three factors make the urban land and that on the citys fringe a highly contested commodity: federal, provincial, and local land-owning agencies, corporate sector interests, formal and informal developers, international capital, and military cantonments compete for control and for extracting maximum value from it. The victims of this battle for turf and profits are the city’s social and physical environment and its low and lower middle-income groups.

This book deals with the history, evolution, and present day realities around who owns land, its legal and illegal acquisition, land-use conversions and development, the actors involved and their relationship with each other and with the public at large, the often violent conflicts that take place in this process and the measures that can be taken to regulate the land market for the creation of a better urban environment and for providing homes to its less privileged.

Arif Hasan, , Noman Ahmed, Professor and Chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Mansoor Raza, , Asiva Sadiq-Polack, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Saeed Uddin Ahmed, Lecturer, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Moizza B. Sarwar

Arif Hasan is an architect/planner dealing with urban planning and development issues, particularly those concerning Asia and Pakistan.

Noman Ahmed has a PhD in Civil and Building Engineering from Loughborough University and is Professor and Chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.

Mansoor Raza is a freelance researcher with various action researches to his credit.

Asiya Sadiq-Polack is Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Planning at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.

Saeed Uddin Ahmed is Lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Planning at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.

Moizza B. Sarwar is a DPhil student at the Department of Social Policy, Sommerville College, Oxford. Her current research builds on her masters work on informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, and Karachi, Pakistan.