One of the major reasons for the urban chaos witnessed in Karachi is the dysfunctional land management system. Failure to understand it and bring within it the required reforms, all sectors of urban development will continue to suffer. It is often said that ‘Karachi has many owners,’ a reference to the many agencies that claim ownership of land in Karachi. A defining characteristic of land ownership and development in Karachi that impacts all aspects of policy-making, planning and development, and regulation is the extremely high percentage of government ownership.

Nearly 90 percent of Karachi’s land is under public ownership, where housing facilities cannot be extended without the consent of the respective agency. According to the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Study of 2005, there are 17 major institutions that are stakeholders in land ownership. While this land is still available for a variety of different uses in relatively central locations, the lack of land made available for housing, particularly low-income housing, has meant that employment centers are mostly located at a significant distance from employees’ housing, and more than half of the city’s population is living in Katchi abadis (squatter settlements). These settlements currently occupy about 40 percent of the city’s residential land area.