THE Hon’ SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN in SUO MOTU CASE NO. 16 OF 2011 discussed at Para 13

” The city of Karachi is the Capital of the Province of Sindh, and undoubtedly the hub of great economic and financial activities. Karachi continues to be an important financial and industrial centre for Sindh and the whole country and handles most of the overseas trade of Pakistan and the Central Asian countries. It
accounts for a large portion of the GDP of Pakistan. Karachi’s
population has continued to grow and is estimated to have exceeded 18 million people. According to a legend, this city started as a fishing settlement, where a fisherwoman, Mai Kolachi, settled and started a family. The village that grew out of this settlement was known as Kolachi-jo-Goth (The Village of Kolachi in Sindhi). When Sindh started trading across the sea with Muscat and the Persian Gulf in the late 18th century, Karachi gained in importance; a small fort was constructed for its protection with a few cannons imported from Muscat. The fort had two main gateways: one facing the sea, known as Khara Dar (Brackish Gate) and the other facing the adjoining Lyari river, known as the Meetha Dar (Sweet Gate). The location of these gates corresponds to the present-day city localities of Khaaradar (Khārā Dar) and Meethadar (Mīṭ hā Dar) respectively. By passage of time, it grew into a bigger city. The foundations of a city municipal government were laid down and infrastructure development was undertaken. New businesses started opening up and the population of the town began growing rapidly. In 1878, the city was connected to the rest of British India by rail. Public building projects such as Frere Hall (1865) and the Empress Market (1890) were undertaken. In 1876, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in the city, which by now had become a bustling city with mosques, churches, courthouses, markets, paved streets and a magnificent harbour. By 1899 Karachi had become the largest wheat exporting port in the east. The population of the city was about 105,000 inhabitants by the end of the 19th century, with a cosmopolitan mix of Muslims, Hindus, Europeans, Jews, Parsis, Iranians, Lebanese, and Goans. By the turn of the century, the city faced street congestion, which led to South Asia’s first tramway system being laid down in 1900. In later years, so Karachi prospered as a major centre of commerce and industry during the Raj, attracting communities of Africans, Arabs, Armenians, Catholics from Goa, Jewish, Lebanese, Malays, and Zoroastrians (also known as Parsees) – in addition to a large number of businessmen. As the movement for independence almost reached its conclusion, the city suffered widespread outbreaks of communal violence between the majority Muslims and the minority Hindus, who were often targeted by the incoming Muslim refugees. In response to the perceived threat of Hindu domination, self preservation of identity, language and culture in combination with Sindhi Muslim resentment towards wealthy
Sindhi Hindus, the province of Sindh became the first province of
India to pass the Pakistan Resolution, in favour of the creation of
the Pakistani state. The ensuing turmoil of independence led to the
expulsion of most of Karachi’s Hindu community. While many poor low caste Hindus, Christians, and wealthy Zoroastrians (Parsees) remained in the city, Karachi’s native Sindhi Hindu community fled to India and was replaced by Muslim refugees who, in turn, had been uprooted from regions belonging to India. District Karachi was chosen as the capital city of Pakistan and it accommodated a huge influx of migrants and refugees from India to the newly formed country. As a consequence, the demographics of the city changed drastically. However, it still maintained a great cultural diversity as its new inhabitants arrived from different parts of India. In 1958, the capital of Pakistan was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad and Karachi thus became the capital of Sindh. During the 1960s, Karachi was seen as an economic role model around the world. Many countries sought to emulate Pakistan’s economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city’s second “Five-Year Plan” and World Financial Centre in Seoul is designed and modeled after Karachi. With economic growth and prosperity, peace and tranquility reigned in the city, business places were full of activity till late night with a lot of hustle and bustle seen all around and it came to be known as the city of lights. Being a big port city, it contributed, roughly stating, about 60– 70 per cent of the total revenue of the country. ”

In 2022 Karachi Port Trust (KPT) named two of its tugs as MT Kharadar and MT Mithadar .

Trademark Blue Economy (IPO)