Karachi, my Pride of Place, is in a shambles. Once prided as the 'city of lights' and a cathedral of arts, culture and education, today this metropolitan of around 30 million people, a prospective economic powerhouse, is in ruins and has been ripped off its glory and magnanimity. Its infrastructure is dilapidated; civic amenities, now incurred by its inhabitants at an exorbitant cost, have gone for a toss; and the once proudly mentionable norms and ethos are nowhere.

The city is bulging and exploding. It is literally unplanned, and the claim of it being a town properly laid-out by the colonials is a myth today. Thanks to 'China-cutting', an arbitrary and illogical truncation of land, even over sewerages and amenity plots, Karachi is rapidly turning into a ghetto. As part of modernisation, it is witnessing a stampede of high-rises, pinned on a poor architecture sans parking and safety exits.

It is polluting; possesses severe environmental hazards with solid-waste choked in drainages; awaiting monsoon rains........

© The Express Tribune