Why do people from Karachi differ in so many ways from the rest of Pakistan. Why does the character of the city differ from the rest of the country. Why is there a clear cut line between Karachiites and other Pakistanis.
I was thinking about this. And I saw a man with a briefcase. Fully suited, as in ready to go to a board meeting suited. Run after a bus a get on it.
There is when it hit me.
Karachi has gone over to the Industrial Age. It has crossed the era of the industrial revolution. That can be seen. You look around and you do not see a city from the Agricultural age like the other cities of Pakistan. You see a city in the Industrial Age.
Islamabad is much like the capital cities of Pre-Industrial periods. Lots of civil servants and their their families. Only the men work and very few women. Lahore is the centre of the Punjab province, the people from villiages looking for jobs, faimilies of the provincial elite, the centre of the provincial government. But when you come to Karachi. The financial and industrial centre of the country. The importance of Karachi is not due to government offices. It is due to the sheer production capacity in the city itself.
In ALL other Pakistani cities the vast majority of people come from ancestral villiages. Only a minority in Karachi does. In ALL other Pakistani cities the middle class is very very small and not visible and not effective . Karachi has a visible and large middle class that defines the character and culture of the city. Looking at all this is suddenly become evident.
We are in a different Era. Things are bound to be different.
posted by Jalal @ 20:08
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