Bin Qasim Town


Bin Qasim Town was a Karachi borough in the northern part of the city that was named after Port Qasim. Bin Qasim Town was formed in 2001 as part of The Local Government Ordinance 2001, and was subdivided into 7 union councils. The town system was disbanded in 2011, and Bin Qasim Town was re-organized as part of Karachi Malir District in 2015.

Location

Bin Qasim Town was located in the southeastern part of Karachi along the Arabian Sea and the Indus River delta. The town and the adjacent Port Qasim were named after Muhammad bin Qasim, an Arab general who conquered large parts of Sindh in the eighth century CE. Bin Qasim was bordered by Gadap Town to the north, Thatta District and the Indus River to the east, the Arabian Sea to the south and the Malir River and the towns of Landhi, Malir, and Korangi Cantonment to the west. The town had a population of about 315,000 at the 1998 census, of which 97% were Muslim and include several ethnic groups – Sindhis form majority in the town. The other ethnic groups inhabiting the town included Balochs, Kashmiris, Seraikis, Pakhtuns, Brahuis, Muhajirs, Punjabis, Memons, Bohras and Ismailis.

History

The federal government under Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup d'etat, introduced local government reforms in the year 2000, which eliminated the previous "third tier of government" and replaced it with the fourth tier. The effect in Karachi was the dissolution of the former Karachi Division, and the merging of its five districts to form a new Karachi City-District with eighteen autonomous constituent towns including Bin Qasim Town. In 2011, the system was disbanded but remained in place for bureaucratic administration until 2015, when the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation system was reintroduced. In 2015, Bin Qasim Town was re-organized as part of Karachi Malir district.

Neighbourhoods of Bin Qasim Town

Trade and industry

The port of Bin Qasim was built in the 1970s to relieve pressure on the Port of Karachi and is today the second largest port of Pakistan. The port is surrounded by a large industrial area which includes the Pakistan Steel Mills complex in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Pakistan Machine Tool Factory and the Zulfiqarabad Oil Terminal as well as the nearby industrial estate in Landhi Town. The two neighbourhoods of Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri are focussed on the fishing industry, complemented by the nearby Korangi Fish Harbour.