Last Sunday, a day-long festival was held at the recently renovated Khaliqdina Hall in the heart of the old city of Karachi.

While Karachi’s public spaces are coming back to life — as seen with the attendances at the Arts Council’s World Culture Festival, the performances at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) and the All Pakistan Music Conference, and new fringe cultural spaces such as Nani Ghar, Mehr Ghar and Kitab Ghar — seeing an abandoned heritage building once again milling with people of all ages from across Karachi, was a moving experience. The handsome portals of the Palladium building, for many years dark and silent, were filled with light and life, as in the past.

Architect and urban planner Arif Hasan, in his article ‘The Changing Face of Karachi’, explains in great detail the circumstances that ‘orphaned’ the inner city. Karachi has awakened after three decades of fear. Much has changed in these decades. The culture of cinema, which started with Star Cinema on Bunder Road in 1917, has vanished as, one by one, the 136 cinema houses in Karachi have been converted to shopping malls or offices, and the once-bustling Irani tea shops have now dwindled to a mere handful.

The Municipal Commissioner, Afzal Zaidi, a historian of Karachi, suggested while speaking on a panel at Khaliqdina Hall that, when there is a surge of interest by citizens, change becomes possible. Is it so unthinkable that Karachi could once again bring cultural life back to its inner city?

From Sir Charles Napier’s vision for Karachi to modern efforts to reclaim public spaces in the city’s older quarters, evidence exists that the metropolis can still change its trajectory

After the Warsaw uprising against German occupation in 1944, 85 percent of the city was strategically destroyed. The brainchild of architect Professor Jan Zachwatowicz, an office for the reconstruction of the city was established from 1945-1951. The sole source of financing was the donations made by the people. Citizens stepped up with funds, labour and passion. The city’s Old Town was reconstructed from data provided by old documents, memories and paintings, earning it a place on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage list.

Like so many heritage cities, Warsaw also faced resistance. To the communist regime, the old architecture represented bourgeois values. Modernist architects felt the need for modern infrastructure and, of course, developers only saw land value. This is true of many heritage cities, including Karachi.

Can developers be convinced of the economic and cultural value of historic buildings? Would planners engage with local communities to understand the economic and cultural dynamics of city precincts? In many cities, tax incentives encourage developers to restore older buildings rather than tear them down and build anew. Can the municipality spearhead this change?

The first person to dream of what Karachi could be was Sir Charles Napier, whom history remembers as the conqueror of Sindh. Despite finding “miserable mud villages with a population of robbers, all filth and poverty and misery”, he visualised Karachi as the Star of the East.

On the advice of the British explorer and writer Richard Burton, Napier moved the capital of Sindh from Hyderabad to Karachi, becoming its first city planner. He wanted to “show government how very important a place it may become and how to make it so.” Interestingly, all this was against the wishes of his employers, the East India Company (EIC). His sole supporter, Lord Ellensborough, advised him to work on his plans without alerting anyone in the cantonment.

Eventually, Karachi did become a gracious, clean, lively city, attracting people and businesses from across the world. Napier’s successors, both British and native, implemented his vision. At the time of his departure in 1847, his love for Karachi was evident: “Thou shall be the glory of the East, would that I could come again in seeing you, Kurrachee, in your grandeur.”

One hundred and eighty-two years later, Karachi is once again grappling with the indifference of government that Napier faced and common citizens are once more surrounded with “all filth and poverty and misery” — his dream all but undone. However, Karachi has a spirit that is difficult to subdue.

Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, Karachi’s first elected mayor, suggested a daily oath for citizens in 1942: “Each morning, every person should take an oath with himself that this is his city and, even if 50 people could honestly keep this oath, then everything would become all right.”

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 7th, 2025