The 17th International Urdu Conference, which is celebrating Karachi with the tagline ‘Jishan-Karachi’, on its second day on Friday held a session on the city’s development and change over time.
The session was titled ‘Karachi: Yesterday or Today’ and was moderated by Alia Naqvi. The panel included Arif Hasan, Asma Ibrahim, Nauman Ahmed and Dr. Kaleemullah Lashari.
The conversation focused on the history of Karachi and the current needs of the city. Talking about the geographical importance of Karachi, Asma said that Karachi has always had geographical importance but now it has decreased.
He said that Karachi is no longer the city it used to be. The speaker urged the new generation to understand and highlight the geographical importance of Karachi. He lamented the illegal constructions in Karachi which are destroying the identity of the city. “The city is disappearing fast, and the building mafia is behind it,” the speaker said.
Dr. Lashari recounted several historical anecdotes from the past, lamenting that the city’s climate, buildings, sea and harbor no longer resemble what they once were. He lamented that Karachi used to be an important place where one could go anywhere through its land and sea routes.
Hasan mentioned Karachi in a light tone and said that the city used to be divided into different types of neighborhoods where the rich and the poor lived together. It lasted from the 1950s to the 1960s, he said, and even today, these neighborhoods serve as reminders of the city’s history.
He also observed that there were various communities that once inhabited the city, but now their traces are disappearing. Ahmed pointed out that Karachi once served as a bridge between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, which is why the Bengali community was prominent here. However, after 1971, the city’s landscape changed drastically. The population grew rapidly due to the influx of people from different cities, which filled the outskirts of the city.
He said that the building mafia has destroyed the beauty of the city and emphasized that to preserve the historical heritage of the city, it is important to preserve the existence of communities and protect their places.
Finally, Naqvi and Hasan said that if there is to be progress, there must be proper laws. He also called for the creation of Karachi Museum to preserve the city’s history and urban planning so that the new generation can learn about the glorious past of the city.