When Pakistan came into existence in August 1947, Karachi was a city of roughly 435,000 people. Within months, its population changed dramatically. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees arrived from India after Partition, seeking shelter, employment and security in the new country’s capital.

The city’s infrastructure, housing stock and public services had never been designed to absorb such numbers in such a short time. The shortage of housing that Karachi experiences today has its roots in those first years after Independence.

The newly established government faced an emergency unlike any it had encountered before. Refugees were accommodated in schools, military barracks, public buildings and temporary camps. Many forcibly occupied abandoned properties left behind by Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India. Others erected makeshift shelters on vacant land. These arrangements were intended to be temporary, but many became permanent as the demand for affordable housing continued to grow.

Karachi’s population more than doubled within a few years. By the 1951 Census, the city’s population had reached over one million people. Migration continued throughout the following decade, as people arrived not only from India but also from Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or KP) and Balochistan in search of work. The city was becoming Pakistan’s major commercial and administrative hub, but its housing policy failed to keep pace with its population growth.

More than 60 percent of Karachi’s population now lives in informal neighbourhoods because of the scarcity of affordable planned housing. Karachi’s housing crisis began with the city’s explosive growth after Partition and has persisted through seven decades of ambitious plans, failed resettlement schemes and shifting housing policies. The history of the city’s failed interventions reveals a recurring lesson: housing cannot be separated from employment, transport, education and social networks. Can the city’s policymakers learn from the mistakes of the past? And what can be done to house people in Pakistan’s largest metropolis?

More than 60 percent of Karachi’s population now lives in informal neighbourhoods because of the scarcity of affordable planned housing. Karachi’s housing crisis began with the city’s explosive growth after Partition and has persisted through seven decades of ambitious plans, failed resettlement schemes and shifting housing policies. The history of the city’s failed interventions reveals a recurring lesson: housing cannot be separated from employment, transport, education and social networks. Can the city’s policymakers learn from the mistakes of the past? And what can be done to house people in Pakistan’s largest metropolis?

INITIAL ATTEMPTS AT HOUSING

The government’s first response focused on building formal housing. Pakistan Quarters, Martin Quarters, Federal B Area, Paposh Nagar and several other residential schemes were developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

These projects demonstrated that the state recognised the housing shortage, but they were never designed to meet the needs of the majority. Most units were built for government officers and public servants rather than low-income households or newly arrived migrants. The people facing the greatest housing insecurity remained largely outside the formal system.

Recognising that Karachi needed long-term planning, the government commissioned the Greater Karachi Plan, prepared by the Swedish consulting firm Merz Rendel Vatten (MRV) and published in 1951. It was the city’s first comprehensive master plan. The plan proposed a structured expansion of Karachi through satellite towns, industrial areas, improved transport links and planned residential neighbourhoods. It attempted to guide future growth rather than simply respond to immediate crises.

The plan reflected many of the planning ideas popular at the time. It assumed that urban growth could be managed through comprehensive planning, zoning regulations and large-scale public investment. Satellite settlements were expected to reduce pressure on the city centre, while new infrastructure would accommodate future population growth.

The proposals were technically ambitious, but they also depended on financial resources and administrative capacity that Pakistan simply did not possess during its early years. As a result, much of the master plan remained on paper. Karachi continued to grow, but it grew largely outside the framework envisioned by the planners.

THE RISE OF KATCHI ABADIS

This gap between planning and reality has become a defining feature of Karachi’s development. Population growth was immediate. Planning operated slowly. Families in need of shelter could not wait for housing schemes that required years of surveys, land acquisition, financing and construction. They solved the problem themselves.

Throughout the 1950s, informal settlements began to appear across the city. These settlements, later known as katchi abadis, were not simply the result of illegal occupation, as they are often described. They reflected the absence of affordable alternatives. For many low-income households, the choice was never between formal housing and informal housing. It was between informal housing and no housing at all.

Many policymakers viewed these settlements as planning failures or illegal encroachments.........

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