Usually, in this series, we tend to pick up the topic discussed in other blogs that are relevant to Karachi and expand on them but the following description of the North Nazimabad Town by Owais Mughal in All Things Pakistan ^[1] is worthy of being reproduced in full. Enjoy!

In April 2008, we had a post on Eight Bazaars of Faisalabad ^[2], and we presented it as one of the best examples of town planning in Pakistan. We would like to develop this topic into a whole new series about the best planned localities of Pakistan. Among many examples of fine town planning in Pakistan are North Nazimabad Karachi, Model Town Lahore, Faisalabad’s 8 bazaars ^[2], Federal-B-Area Karachi, Islamabad Master Plan, Wah Cantonment, and many more in other cities. In today’s post we will cover North Nazimabad, Karachi.

The satellite image below shows North Nazimabad’s 20 residential blocks bound in red polygon. East of NN is Federal-B-Area where as North of NN is North Karachi and Buffer Zone.

Whenever the aesthetics of Civil Engineering and Town Planning Projects is considered; it is an accpetable fact that curves and gradiants are considered more natural than squares or rectangles. Cities planned in rectangular grids, though easy to navigate, don’t have same aesthtics as brought out by circular roads and curves. If you look at North Nazimabad’s map above you can clearly see how aesthetically the curved roads and plots have been designed within mostly rectanguar grids. Atleast to me this is the town planning of highest aesthetic order.

To further make my point on the elegance of diagonals and curved roads as compared to boring rectangular blocks, I want to present the maps of Blocks C, D and E of North Nazimabad, shown in the photo to the left. Somewhere in the course of basic town planning and Architecture, it is said that

‘Nature never uses straight line in its designs, therefore curves always appear more natural’

Note the little green oval to the bottom left of the map. This is Asghar Ali Shah Cricket Ground in Block C

Brief History of North Nazimabad

The photo to the right shows North Nazimabad’s location in a larger settled area view of Karachi city.

Uptil late 1950s, Karachi’s northern most settlement used to be Nazimabad. Being the Capital of Pakistan, and as the population of the city grew, need arose to house federal employees in better planned neighborhoods. Localities of Federal-B-Area and North Nazimabad were thus planned to house Federal employees. As far as aesthetics, ameneties, and grandeur was concerned, no other locality in Pakistan could match the town planning of North Nazimabad. In 1962, the Capital was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad and the planned neighborhood of North Nazimabad became available to general public instead of originally planned employees of Federal Government onlyThe Matrix:

North Nazimabad consists of 20 residential blocks identified with alphabets from A to T. The plot sizes across all North Nazimabad are divided into 6 categories viz. A, B, C, D, E and F. Plots of A category have an area of 240 square yards, B = 400 Square Yards, C=600 square yards, D=1000 square yards and F=2000 square yards . Therefore a sample house address in North Nazimabad of A36/T means House number 36 with an area of 240 square yards located in Block T.

The photo to the left is satellite image of Block A of North Nazimabad.

North Nazimabad is also famous for its main mass transit arterial called the ‘Sher Shah Suri Road’ being a 440 ft wide thoroughfare. There are several 220 ft wide boulevards with rain drains dividing the two lanes.

The Eucalyptus Town:

In the period 1983-87, during the mayorship of (late)Abdus Sattar Afghani, whole North Nazimabad locality was planted with hundreds and thousands of Eucalyptus saplings. As fast as Eucalyptus grows, within few years whole Nazimabad town turned into a green paradise of tall Eucalyptus trees.

However, lately these eucalyptus trees have been mostly cut down for reason better known to the subsquent city governments. One reason that I have heard is that Eucalyptus is a water thirsty tree and so many of the eucalptuses in North Nazimabad were causing the ground water level to go down.

Also Called Taimuria

During the same era, in order to localize the neighborhood names, North Nazimabad was renamed as ‘Taimuria’ and Federal-B-Area was renamed as ‘Mansura’. With the demse of Government of that time, the new names also met their natural death and never caught a mass acceptation. Today the only remnants of the name Taimuria in North Nazimabad are the ‘Taimuria Police Station’ and a ‘Taimuria library’.

Today:

The photo to the right is Block B of North Nazimabad .

North Nazimabad of today has lost much of its past glory. Just like many localities of big cities, businesses from city center slowly creep into residential areas and people of these area start moving further outward to suburbs. Same has happened to North Nazimabad. The once peaceful residential locality of Karachi is now fast turning into a commercial market.

On my last visit to Karachi, I was surprized to see almost 80% ‘F’ size plots of block F were converted into some private school or private University. The once small eating shops in block H and block A had collectively turned into full fledge food streets. barkaat-e-Hyderi market is now one of the largest shopping centers of the city. All multinational fast food chains have opened their branches in

The photo below shows Block F of North Nazimabad. Many of the plots in Block F were of area 2000 sq feet. They have mostly been converted to something commercial e.g. Private Schools and Universities.

Infrastructure:

North Nazimabad of today boasts of atleast four First-Class Cricket Grounds, several hospitals, A Medical and Dental University, Several HSC Colleges, Taimuria library, several parks and sustained commercial activity which makes it a complete city inside the city.

In 2001, North Nazimabad was declared as one of the 18 towns of Karachi. were added to North Nazimabbad proper.

Mass Transit Plans for North Nazimabad

North Nazimabad is included in the Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) of 1970s. The Orangi-Cantt Station mass transit corridor touches Block A and B of North Nazimabad.

North Nazimabad also has a Railway Station on Karachi Circular Railway Route. So whenever the KCR is fully revived on its loop, North Nazimabad will benefit.

Population:

According to 1998 Census the population of 20 blocks of North Nazimabad town was approximately 250000 where as population of North Nazimabad town which also included the localities of Buffer Zone I and II, Shadman, and Paposh Nagar was 496000

Trivia About North Nazimabad:

1. The Four First-Class Cricket grounds of North Nazimabad: Bakhtiari Youth Center A Ground ^[3](Block S), KDA Stadium (Block S), Syed Asghar Ali Shah Stadium (Block C), which also held a 3-day International between Pakistan and Zimbabwe and KCCA Stadium (Block N).

2. In 1960, North Nazimabad was connected by Karachi Circular Railway Service with its Railway Station in Block B called ‘North Nazimabad’. The station remained operation until 1999. KCR service got suspended in 1999.

3. Postal Code of North Nazimabad is 74700 ^[4].
References:

1. North Nazimabad in Transition ^[5] by Sabeen Jamil
2. North Nazimabad Town Government ^[6]
3. City District Government of Karachi (CDGK) ^[7]
4. Google Earth ^[8]for all the Satellite Maps

Ready For Your Geography Quiz?

So in the satellite image below, can you try to find out where is North Nazimabad located? Answer is given above in the first map of this post.

North Nazimabad also boasts of being the most religiously diversified area of Karachi.  Block C has a Bohra Jamat Khana, and an Ismaili Jamat Khana. The two communities live peacefully with the Sunnis and any communal tension has been unheard of. The town also has the highest literacy rate and the lowest crime rate ^[9] in the city.