Karachi. Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City

KARACHI, a city of 21,2 million inhabitants, is Pakistan's largest and most important commercial hub, and its politics can impact the stability of national governments.In this fascinating and beautifully crafted political history of post-colonial Karachi, Gayer tells the story of how the city became the violent and fragmented place it is today : a place riven by murderous ethnic, sectarian, and gang related turf-wars.In 2011, a bookseller tells Gayer that « today so many people are dying that [whenever someone is killed], we are less affected than if a flea was creeping over our ear » (p.241).It is a city where innocent bystanders are now the casualties of increasingly militarised political contests waged with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG's), where residents seeking to escape the violence are confined to their homes for days on end, and those who venture into the wrong neighbourhoods risk being kidnapped, killed, and mutilated, merely because they belong to the wrong ethnic group

Sociology · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East