Conflicting Binaries and Urban Spaces: the Case of Merewether Tower Precinct in Karachi (Pakistan)

In the South Asian context, public spaces accommodate various forms of informality. Economic, social and political procedures may at times have a vital role in the management and organization of these spaces. The interface between the informal and formal use of land and associated activities comes into competition when the notion gets tied to the creation of an identity for the urban space. In such a situation, these urban spaces accommodate conflicts between global and local identities within the neo-liberal agenda, informal and formal socio-economic practices, and various opposing forces related to traffic and pedestrian movements. Using a case-based methodology, this paper maps the various parallel working jigsaws of conflicting binaries and the many types of negotiations happening on a daily basis within the historic precinct of Merewether Tower in Karachi. In doing so the paper tweezes out the significant and inevitable role of informal enterprises and negotiations in the urban realm as un-detachable from the creation of public urban space in the global south