Karachi

Karachi is the largest and most populous metropolitan city of Pakistan and its main seaport and financial centre, as well as the capital of Sindh province. The city has an estimated population of over 23.5 million people as of 2013,[1] and an area of approximately 3,527 km2 (1,362 sq mi),[6][7] resulting in a density of more than 6,000 people per square kilometre (15,500 per square mile).[8] Karachi is the 3rd-largest city in the world by population within city limits,[9] the 11th largest urban agglomeration in the world and the largest city in the Muslim world.[10] It is Pakistan's centre of banking, industry, economic activity and trade and is home to Pakistan's largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry, entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a hub of higher education in South Asia and the Muslim world.[11]

Karachi is ranked as a beta world city.[12][13] It was the capital of Pakistan until Islamabad was constructed as a capital in order to spread development evenly across the country and to prevent it from being concentrated in Karachi.[14] Karachi is the location of the Port of Karachi and Port Bin Qasim, two of the region's largest and busiest ports. After the independence of Pakistan, the city population increased dramatically when hundreds of thousands of Muhajirs from India and other parts of South Asia came to settle in Karachi.[15]

The city is located in the south of Pakistan, on the Arabian Sea coastline. It is known as the "City of Lights"[16][17] and "The Bride of the Cities" for its liveliness,[citation needed] and the "City of the Quaid", having been the birth and burial place of Quaid-e-Azam, the Great Leader (Muhammad Ali Jinnah), the founder of Pakistan, who made the city his home after Pakistan's independence from the British Raj on 14 August 1947.