Fruit vendors and other hawkers at a bazaar in Karachi | Courtesy the writer
This article draws upon the work I have done at different times with Architects Asiya Sadiq Polack and Christophe Polack, Dr Noman Ahmed, and Engr Mansoor Raza, and various researches on the subject I have carried out with the support of the Karachi Urban Resource Centre, Hamza Arif and NurJehan Mawaz Khan.
Hawkers are everywhere in Karachi. They dominate the urban landscape, except in the cantonments where they are prohibited. Karachiites of all classes in the city deal with them.
My association with them began in 1986 while travelling through Somerset Street with my teacher, Ghulam Kibria. I saw hawkers being removed violently from the pavements of the street. Their carts were being overturned, they were being thrashed by batons and attempts at confiscating their goods were also being made.