Search

New Makran simulations imply two generalized zones of mid-field tsunami hazard in greater Karachi. The simulations presuppose seven megathrust ruptures that strike east-west, range in area from 100 × 150 km to 355 × 800 km, and lie west of the city by no less than 100 km. The assumed seismic slip is uniform across each rupture area. The smallest rupture approximates the 1945 Makran earthquake of magnitude 8.1, while the largest corresponds to a previously conjectured giant Makran earthquake of magnitude 9.2. None of the sources include a complication in 1945: late-arriving waves from submarine slides or splay faulting. Consequently, the first simulated wave is the largest in each of the seven scenarios. And because the sources are to the west, the simulated waves are higher, and arrive sooner, at Karachi Port (1.5 hr) than 30 km farther east at Port Qasim (nearly 3 hr). These combinations of height and arrival time can be generalized as properties of two hazard zones: a western one that includes Karachi Port, and an eastern one that includes Port Qasim. The simulated flooding extends farthest inland into low-lying residential areas of the western zone. Neither hazard zone is near-field or far-field. That is, neither is near enough to the fault ruptures for felt seismic shaking to dependably warn of a fast-arriving tsunami, yet neither is distant enough to receive more than three hours of advance notice through tsunami warning systems. Our simulations are intended to support emergency management in this mid-field setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that the National Highway and Motorway Police of Pakistan ("NHMP") operates on the metropolitan police model as opposed to the Irish constabulary, paramilitaristic model that the Karachi police is based on. Both work through an operating manual that can be broadly conceived of as "procedural informality" - what Waseem calls the "core outcome" of Pakistan's brand of post-colonial policing. Zoha Waseem's work on what she dubs the "post-colonial condition of policing" in the megapolis of Karachi offers vibrant insights into the institutionally battered souls that populate the rank and file of Karachi's police force, as well as the powerful, oft paradoxical slices of the upper air that schematise politics, industry, and policing in a permanent quest for hegemony. [Extracted from the article]