The Biggest Cities

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and is the provincial capital of Sindh province. Located on the coast of the Arabian Sea, north-west of the Indus River Delta, the megacity is the largest city, original capital and cultural, economical, philantropic, educational, and political hub, as well as the largest port of the country.

As Pakistan’s economic capital, its leading economic sectors include finance, business services, transportation, media, television production, publishing, software production, medical research, education and tourism.

The metropolitan area along with its suburbs comprises the world’s second most populated city, spread over 3,530 square kilometres. The city credits its growth to the mixed populations of economic and political migrants and refugees from different national, provincial, linguistic and religious origins who have largely come to settle here permanently. It is locally termed as the City of Lights for its liveliness and the City of The Quaid, for not only being both the birth and death place of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah the founder of Pakistan but also his home after 1947. Residents and those born in the city are called “Karachiites”.

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the most populous city in the world. With an estimated population of about 13 million in the city (as of 2007) and 7 million in the suburbs, it forms the world’s fifth most populous metropolitan area. Mumbai is located off the west coast of India. The city has a deep natural harbour and the port handles over half of India’s passenger traffic and a significant amount of cargo.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India, and houses important financial institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies. Mumbai attracts migrants from all over India because of the immense employment opportunities, and the relatively high standard of living, but mostly end up living in shanty slums as more than half of the city’s population lives in slums. The city is home to India’s Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai is also one of the few cities that accommodates a national park, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, within its city limits.