“Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever... As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals.”

— Crowfoot, chief of the Native American Blackfoot peoples

Beneath Karachi’s relentless neon pulse and armoured luxury lies a stark, shadowed reality — that of the city’s more than 1,414 katchi abadis or informal settlements. Beyond the glass towers, millions inhabit a sprawling network of goths [villages] and settlements that have been rendered invisible by successive regimes yet remain fiercely alive.

These are dynamic cauldrons where human survival is relentlessly forged. Here, the very essence of human existence — intricate sociological dealings, shifting gender equations, deep-seated attitudes towards the built environment — is locked in a perpetual, high-stakes negotiation.

Every decision is a direct response to the brutal realities of land tenure security, the unforgiving dictates of location, the glaring absence of fundamental services, anti-poor governance, decrepit or neglected infrastructure and the history of the locality. This ceaseless negotiation, this raw, defiant act of living, is what perpetually shapes and reshapes these settlements.

In the high-stakes land-use circuits of Karachi, a home is rarely just four walls — it is a strategic manoeuvre in a lifelong battle for legitimacy. From the shadow of elevated expressways in District South to the edges of railway tracks in District Malir, and to the corners of the city along the M9 Highway, the ground beneath the feet of the residents of three settlements — Hasan Aulia Village, Moria Khan Goth and Ghulam Zakarya Goth — dictates their relationship with the state, their capacity for development and their very sense of belonging.

By examining these three informal settlements — their history, evolution and current status — this article explores the healthcare, social, political and economic challenges facing these three localities and the broader questions they raise about the manner in which Karachi functions as a city.

While it is convenient to lump all three of these informal settlements under the large umbrella of katchi abadis, a closer look at their evolving demographics reveals distinct patterns and trends.

Karachi’s 1,414 informal settlements are not urban accidents and instead function as dynamic systems of survival. Examining three low-income informal settlements in Karachi — Hasan Aulia Village, Moria Khan Goth and Ghulam Zakarya Goth — reveals the historical and contemporary challenges present in these overlooked localities and, more importantly, how their residents negotiate daily life and shape the way Karachi functions as a city…

Karachi’s 1,414 informal settlements are not urban accidents and instead function as dynamic systems of survival. Examining three low-income informal settlements in Karachi — Hasan Aulia Village, Moria Khan Goth and Ghulam Zakarya Goth — reveals the historical and contemporary challenges present in these overlooked localities and, more importantly, how their residents negotiate daily life and shape the way Karachi functions as a city…

HOW LAND TENURE SHAPES KARACHI’S URBAN SOUL

Hasan Aulia Village, which sits beneath the Lyari Expressway, is a living chronicle of local resistance. Founded in the late 19th century by the Hauts — migrants fleeing famine in Iran — the settlement’s 15,000-20,000 residents are anchored by a stone masonry mosque. Unlike many informal clusters, this is leased land — a rare shield of security.

However, this stability was forged in fire. During the late Gen Pervez Musharraf’s era, the Lyari Expressway project threatened mass evictions. The community refused to yield, mobilising intellectuals and political allies to save their 11-acre home. Today, the village is a marvel of resourcefulness. Residents even repurpose the void beneath the expressway for communal Eid prayers and parking, turning a symbol of displacement into a pillar of neighbourhood life.

In Malir District, the 150,000 residents of Moria Khan Goth, living alongside the railway track, occupy a bustling landscape of banks, schools and chai khanas [tea shops]. Yet, a decades-old dispute with Pakistan Railways has reportedly left 250 of the 20,000 plus households, spread across 27 acres, in a state of existential limbo. While the Sindh High Court granted ownership rights to residents on a major piece of land in 1985, claims linked to the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) keep the threat of eviction alive.

The community’s struggle is further complicated by a one kilometre-plus wall erected by city administrators. Despite this, the area’s prime location near the airport ensures a thriving rental market, where landlords — often original settlers — carefully manage migrant renters in multi-storey structures that frequently defy building bye-laws restrictions.

Further out in Gadap Town, Ghulam Zakarya Goth serves as a masterclass in adaptation. Home to 25,000 households (non-leased settlements), this working-class enclave thrives despite systemic infrastructural neglect. The architecture here is defined largely by single-storey reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures, many of which have been repurposed into grocery storefronts.

Because the land is non-leased, property prices remain low, fuelling a boom in both first generation migration and land speculation. It is a unique socio-economic frontier, where a transient population and........

© Dawn (Magazines)