[sfjailbird]

As a Westerner who travels to Pakistan once in a while, of the three biggest cities (Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad), Karachi seems like an outlier in terms of corruption, even for Pakistan, with entrenched mafia rule. I don't know the reasons this is so in Karachi, perhaps as the port city smuggling is big there.

In terms of infrastructure, Karachi also seems different as you said, with lots of apartment buildings, where other cities like Lahore is almost exclusively villas, so density will be higher with more strain on infrastructure.

A very interesting development is the premiership of Imran Khan who is politically independent (excluding being beholden to the military as is all political leaders) and genuinely making a big effort in fighting corruption. It will be interesting to see how much he can accomplish.

[smusamashah]

We all thought he will remain politically independent. He isn't and never was. I was even part of his early campaigns as a youngster who were his main focus at the time. He is better and many aspects very different, but political system including almost everyone surrounding him are garbage. He is facing the same challenges now for which he use to harshly criticize previous governments. I stopped watching news but the biggest is probably currency being devalued continuously.