Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City

Journalist Shackle debuts with an evocative portrait of Karachi’s political, ethnic, and criminal conflicts. In the 70 years since the partition of India, the population of Pakistan’s largest city has grown from 500,000 to 20 million, a staggering rate of expansion that has left vast sections of the city dependent on mafia groups to provide basic services such as water and electricity. Meanwhile, the waves of migration that have fueled Karachi’s growth have also given rise to “noxious ethnic political movements” that intimidate opponents through violence. Shackle centers her narrative on five Karachiites, including a street school teacher who varies her route to her small rooftop classroom to avoid gangs, a local crime reporter who chases down leads on police executions, and an ambulance driver who navigates the city’s alleyways to aid those injured in street battles and bombings. Shackle’s profiles touch on traumas in the city’s recent history, in particular the 2014 terrorist attack on the Jinnah International Airport and ensuing military and police crackdown, while also revealing Karachi’s “gravitational pull” on Pakistan and the world. Vivid prose and Shackle’s skillful balancing of the personal and the political make this a worthy introduction to a complex metropolis. (Aug.)