The recent torrential rains – about 200 millimeters in three days – once again exposed chaotic and fragmented governance of Karachi. The floods have relaunched the confusion on the agency or the municipal organization is responsible for the basic services, further supplying public frustration and intensifying the debates on the way the city is governed.
On the other side of the border in Mumbai, nearly 800 millimeters of rain for only four days disrupted the lives of millions, of road flooding, flights to the grounding and stopping the train services, while large parts of the city were immersed in water to the waist.
However, the comparison is striking: the two cities support the same climatic shocks, but Mumbai absorbs the impact and recovers, while Karachi flickers several times. The contrast underlines a deeper reality – governance, financial capacity and town planning make all the difference.
The crisis in the process of viability of Karachi is highlighted by its ranking as the least habitable fourth city in the world, 170th in 173 cities, in the global viability index of the Economy Intelligence Unit 2025. On the other hand, Mumbai is 121st, reflecting urban conditions a little better, but always difficult.
Karachi and Mumbai are megapities of more than 20 million people. But while Mumbai has built stronger urban institutions, Karachi was systematically weakened by political fragmentation and voluntary negligence. The results are visible everywhere: in the collapse of infrastructure, inadequate services and the drop in quality of life.
The financial contrast is obvious. The budget of the British British Corporation in 2024-20125 is 26,835 INR crores, or about $ 3.2 billion. This is equivalent to $ 160 per person for a population of around 20 million inhabitants. Almost 76% of these income is increased locally – through land taxes, public service costs and development costs – with the rest of the maharashtra state transfers, including 9,984 INR crores in the granting remuneration.
This robust base allows Mumbai to continue investing in infrastructure and services year after year. Karachi, in comparison, is in difficulty.
The budget of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in 2025-2010 is 55 billion rupees – only 196 million dollars. Adding other municipal agencies, cantonments, DHA and provincial departments, city -scale expenses are estimated at only $ 300 million, although a lack of transparency makes it difficult to obtain a clear tax image from all over the city.
For a population of 20 million inhabitants, this translates into $ 14.7 to $ 25 per person per year – six to eleven times less than Mumbai. Such chronic sub-financing leads to failure services, ruined roads and water that never reaches millions of houses.
The railway from the suburbs of Mumbai illustrates what serious town planning can achieve. It crosses 450 kilometers of track, operates more than 2,300 daily train services and transports more than 7.5 million passengers every day. Karachi, on the other hand, is not comparable. The city depends on the decrepit buses, minibus, ripens and vans – all overcrowded and unreliable.
The Sindh government has promised 8,000 electric buses, but actual delivery has barely started. The Karachi Breeze Bus Rapid Transit project was mired in delays.
The construction of the green line began in 2016, but it was only partially opened in 2021 after the financing of gaps, bureaucratic hold-ups and the pandemic. For a city of this scale, the lack of functional public transport is paralyzing.
Karachi’s financial and service problems are aggravated by chaotic urban planning.
It has become a concrete jungle marked by creeping corruption, uncontrolled real estate development and the absence of a robust local government system. Adding to the city’s planning failures, the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), responsible for the construction and application regulation of safety codes, has long been prey to incompetence, corruption and low application. A tragic example came in July 2025, when a five -story building in Lyari collapsed, killing 27 people.
The DHA and cantonment councils control the rich areas – the DHA extends over approximately 36 square kilometers (1% of Karachi), Malir cantonment approximately 12 square kilometers – with the six cantonments and the DHA by managing together 20 to 30% of the city.
The Sindh government led by PPP, in power since 2008, oversees the remaining 70 to 80%, where 17 million Karachi residents live (according to the Karachi Water & Selerage Corporation website). He assumes the main responsibility for the chronic failures of the city and the decomposition of development.
Fragmentation undermines governance to its heart. Each municipal or cantonment body operates independently, with little coordination to allow economies of scale, shared investments or strategic planning. The result is duplicated tasks, contradictory priorities and low responsibility. Many describe the fragmented governance of Karachi as a little more than the division of the territory among the powerful stakeholders.
Karachi’s under-representation in politics adds to this negligence. The city elects 266 members of the National Assembly of Pakistan (8.3%) on general seats, and 47 of the 130 members of the Sindh provincial assembly on general seats (36.1%), but it contains only two seats in the federal cabinet (out of 43) and two provincial ministries (out of 18). The imbalance reduces Karachi’s influence in decisions concerning budgets and reforms, despite its economic weight and demographic importance.
The city’s failures are the most visible in the water. The Karachi Water & Swerage Corporation provides around 423 million gallons per day, barely a third of the 1,080 to 1,200 mgd required. This difference forces dependence at more than 10,000 oil tankers, many of which are controlled by an “oil mafia” accused of siphoning around 272 mgd, or 41% of the city’s supply. Karachi also loses 30 to 40% of water channeled by leaks from an aging network, including part of the 1950s.
Beyond the water, Karachi suffers from traffic on the ground every day, collapsed waste management and inadequate storm drainage which leads to floods with each monsoon. Climate risks aggravate these crises: heat waves and intense storms threaten more and more millions of residents. Informal establishments, where basic infrastructure is absent, are the hardest affected.
In striking contrast, Mumbai shows how the institutions, financial autonomy and political empowerment support resilience. Its ability to increase significant local income, while drawing state resources, maintains continuous investments in services. The lesson is clear: coherent governance and authorized local bodies are crucial for urban survival and growth.
Karachi, however, is governed by a model resembling urban apartheid. The wealthy districts benefit from higher services and infrastructure, while especially the average – and low -income areas are faced with incessant disintegration and negligence under the Sindh provincial government.
The Clifton bridge, widely considered as a physical and symbolic fracture, separates these privileged enclaves from the rest of the city. While around 380,000 residents live south of the bridge, 98% reside beyond, highlighting a striking border between the privilege and negligence which underlines the deep socio-economic segregation fracturing the urban fabric of Karachi.
The path to follow requires urgent reform. Karachi must unify its municipal and cantonment authorities fragmented in a single metropolitan body to allow strategic planning, reduce waste and improve services. Strengthening local income collection is essential. Bold investments are necessary, in particular to rehabilitate water batteries and dismantle operating cartels such as the oil mafia.
Karachi City Diagnosis 2018 from the World Bank has estimated nearly $ 10 billion in capital investment over a decade to fill critic gaps in the management of transport, water, sanitation and waste – key to make Karachi habitable and economically competitive.
As an economic equipment in Pakistan, the future of Karachi is seriously risky. Decades of negligence, dysfunction and under-funding brought the city at the edge of the edge. Without daring reforms, increased funding and unified governance, Karachi faces the collapse – ruined infrastructure, an increase in inequalities and increasing disorders.
Performing its potential requires a political will, competent leadership and a national commitment to save a city that Pakistan cannot afford to lose.
Warning: The points of view expressed in this play are the own writers and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of PK Press Club.TV.
The writer is the former head of investment in emerging markets of Citigroup and author of “The Gathering Storm”.
Originally published in the news
