Karachi

Karachi is the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the largest city in Pakistan and the 11th largest in the world, with a population of over 20 million. Situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast, Karachi formerly served as the federal capital from 1947 to 1959. Ranked as a beta-global city, it is Pakistan's premier industrial and financial centre, with an estimated GDP of over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021. Karachi is a major metropolitan area and is considered Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city, and among the country's most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse regions, as well as one of the country's most progressive and socially liberal cities.

The region has been inhabited for millennia, but the city was formally founded as the fortified village of Kolachi as recently as 1729. The settlement – lying between the Kohistan and Larr regions of Sindh – greatly increased in importance with the arrival of the East India Company in the mid-19th century following Sindh's annexation. British administrators embarked on substantial projects to transform the city into a major seaport, and connect it with the extensive railway network of the Indian subcontinent. At the time of Pakistan's independence in 1947, the city was the largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000 people, and a slim Hindu majority. Following the partition of India, the city experienced a dramatic shift in population and demography with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from India, coupled with an exodus of nearly all of its Hindu residents.