Pakistan's Trucking Hub: Shireen Jinnah Colony

June 05, 2013 | Pulitzer Center

Matthieu Aikins

Shireen Jinnah Colony is located near the oil terminals in the port of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

From above, hundreds of oil tankers can be seen, many of which supply the U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan, 1,000 miles north over the mountains. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

The area around the truck lot is crammed with stores and workshops that supply the truckers with everything they need. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A boy rolls a tire in front of a truck. Child labor is common in Pakistan. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A truck pulls out of a fuel station in Shireen Jinnah. Truckers are given a set budget for fuel for their journey and must manage their own consumption. Pilferage from the oil tankers is common. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Thanks to the boom in demand for trucking that accompanied the U.S. and NATO surge in Afghanistan, Shireen Jinnah has been rapidly expanding. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A young Pashtun boy runs down the road in Shireen Jinnah. Thousands of Pashtuns have migrated from the tribal areas seeking employment in Shireen Jinnah, part of a larger pattern that has changed the ethnic balance of the city. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

The trucking industry feeds a vast ecosystem that extends down to the vendors and shopkeepers in Shireen Jinnah. The area suffered badly as a result of the ban on NATO supply lines that occurred in 2011. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Mechanics cleaning an engine. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A welder works on a truck's suspension. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A trucker stands atop his truck in the yard in Shireen Jinnah. With the NATO drawdown in Afghanistan, the industry faces an uncertain future. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

A ragpicker goes through a trash pile in Shireen Jinnah. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

Pashtuns also dominate Karachi’s privately-owned bus services. Image by Matthieu Aikins. Pakistan, 2013.

With over 14 million people, Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city.

Its crowded suburbs and slums have sprawled away from the port, but the city’s main roads still radiate out from where ships arriving from the Arabian sea unload their cargoes.

At the southern end of the harbor, two spits of land curl together to enclose a protected inlet. The western spit of land holds the naval yards and the main container port; on the eastern, larger spit, there are the oil terminals and the dense settlements of Shireen Jinnah Colony and Kiamari.

From the air, both sides manifest a peculiar geometry of tightly serried rectangles – with thousands of shipping containers and hundreds of parked oil tankers, many of which will eventually make the long overland journey to Afghanistan.

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