Karachi is the capital of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is the most populous city in Pakistan, fifth-most-populous city proper in the world. Ranked as a beta-global city, the city is Pakistan's premier financial centre, it is the cultural, philanthropic and political hub of the country, Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city. Situated on the Arabian Sea, Karachi serves as a transport hub, is home to Pakistan's two largest seaports, the Port of Karachi and Port Bin Qasim, as well as Pakistan's busiest airport, Jinnah International Airport. Though the Karachi region has been inhabited for millennia, the city was founded as the fortified village of Kolachi in 1729; the settlement drastically increased in importance with the arrival of British East India Company in the mid 19th century, who not only embarked on major works to transform the city into a major seaport, but connected it with their extensive railway network. By the time of the Partition of British India, the city was the largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000.

Following the independence of Pakistan, the city's population increased with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from India. The city experienced rapid economic growth following independence, attracting migrants from throughout Pakistan and South Asia. Karachi is one of Pakistan's most secular and liberal cities, it is the most linguistically and religiously diverse city in Pakistan. Karachi's population was enumerated at 14.9 million in the 2017 census. Karachi is one of the world's fastest growing cities, has communities representing every ethnic group in Pakistan. Karachi is home to over 2 million Bangladeshi immigrants, 1 million Afghan refugees, up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar. Karachi is now Pakistan's premier financial centre; the city has a formal economy estimated to be worth $113 billion as of 2014, the largest in Pakistan. Karachi collects over a third of Pakistan's tax revenue, generates 20% of Pakistan's GDP. 30% of Pakistani industrial output is from Karachi, while Karachi's ports handle 95% of Pakistan's foreign trade.

90% of the multinational corporations operating in Pakistan are headquartered in Karachi. Karachi is considered to be Pakistan's fashion capital, has hosted the annual Karachi Fashion Week since 2009. Known as the "City of Lights" in the 1960s and 1970s for its vibrant nightlife, Karachi was beset by sharp ethnic and political conflict in the 1980s with the arrival of weaponry during the Soviet–Afghan War; the city had become well known for its high rates of violent crime, but recorded crimes decreased following a controversial crackdown operation against criminals, the MQM political party, Islamist militants initiated in 2013 by the Pakistan Rangers. As a result of the operation, Karachi went from being ranked the world's 6th most dangerous city for crime in 2014, to 71 by mid 2019. Karachi was reputedly founded in 1729 as the settlement of Kolachi; the new settlement is said to have been named in honour of Mai Kolachi, whose son is said to have slain a man-eating crocodile in the village after his elder brothers had been killed by it.

The city's inhabitants are referred to by the demonym Karachiite in English, Karāchīwālā in Urdu. Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites discovered by a team from Karachi University on the Mulri Hills constitute one of the most important archaeological discoveries made in Sindh during the last 50 years; the earliest inhabitants of the Karachi region are believed to have been hunter-gatherers, with ancient flint tools discovered at several sites. A sea port called; the Karachi region is believed to have been known to the ancient Greeks. The region may be the site of Krokola, where Alexander the Great once camped to prepare a fleet for Babylonia, as well as Morontobara which may be Karachi's Manora neighbourhood. In 711 CE, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus Valley; the Karachi region is believed to have been known to the Arabs as Debal, from where Muhammad Bin Qasim launched his forces into South Asia in 712 C. E. Under Mirza Ghazi Beg, the Mughal administrator of Sindh, the development of coastal Sindh and the Indus delta was encouraged.

Under his rule, fortifications in the region acted as a bulwark against Portuguese incursions into Sindh. The Ottoman admiral, Seydi Ali Reis, mentioned Debal and Manora Island in his book Mir'ât ül Memâlik in 1554. Karachi was founded in 1729 as the settlement of Kolachi under the rule of the ethnically Baloch Talpur Mirs of Sindh; the founders of the settlement are said to arrived from the nearby town of Karak Bandar after the harbour there silted in 1728 after heavy rains. The settlement was fortified, defended with cannons imported by Sindhi sailors from Muscat, Oman; the name Karachee was used for the first time in a Dutch document from 1742, in which a merchant ship de Ridderkerk is shipwrecked near the original settlement. The city continued to be ruled by the Talpur Mirs until it was occupied by forces under the command of John Keane in February 1839; the British East India Company captured Karachi on 3 February 1839 after HMS Wellesley opened fire and destroyed the local mud fort at Manora.

The town was annexed to British India in 1843. A large part Sindh region was captured by Major General Charles James Napier after the victory in the Battle of Miani, the city was declared capital of the newly formed Sindh province; the city was recognized for its strategic importance, prompting the British to establish the Port of Karachi in 1854. Kara

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is the lead anti-drug law enforcement agency, responsible for preventing and combating any dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals within the Philippines. The agency is tasked with regulatory provisions of Republic Act No. 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. PDEA is the implementing arm of the Dangerous Drugs Board; the DDB is the policy-making and strategy-formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and programs on drug prevention and control. PDEA and DDB are both under the supervision of the Office of the President of the Philippines. For thirty years, the Republic Act No. 6425, or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, had been the backbone of the drug law enforcement system in the Philippines. Despite the efforts of various law enforcement agencies mandated to implement the law, the drug problem alarmingly escalated with orbiting Police Officers collecting drug money; the high profitability of the illegal drug trade, compounded by the existing laws that imposed light penalties to offenders contributed to the gravity of the problem.

Recognizing the need to further strengthen existing laws governing Philippine drug law enforcement system, the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, on June 7, 2002 and it took effect on July 4, 2002. The R. A. 9165 defines more concrete courses of action for the national anti-drug campaign and imposes heavier penalties to offenders. The enactment of R. A. 9165 reorganized the Philippine drug law enforcement system. While the Dangerous Drugs Board remains as the policy-making and strategy-formulating body in planning and formulation of policies and program on drug control and prevention, it created the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency under the Office of the President; the R. A. 9165 abolished the National Drug Law Enforcement and Prevention Coordinating Center, created under Executive Order No. 61, the Narcotics Group of Philippine National Police, Narcotics Division of National Bureau of Investigation, the Customs Narcotics Interdiction Unit of the Bureau of Customs.

Under Executive Order No.206 dated May 15, 2003, these law enforcement agencies have organized the following anti-illegal drugs task force to support the PDEA: Philippine National Police - Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Force. PDEA is headed by a Director General with the Cabinet rank of Undersecretary, responsible for the general administration and management of the agency; the Director General is assisted by two Deputies Director General with the rank of Assistant Secretary: one for Administration and the other one for Operations. The office of the Director General is supported by the Secretary for Directorial Staff, Chief of Public Information Office, Chief of Information Technology Systems Management Office and Chief of Chemical Audit and Management Unit; the Director General of the PDEA shall be responsible for the necessary changes in the organizational set-up which shall be submitted to the DDB for approval. The PDEA have the following National Services headed by Directors, namely: Administrative and Human Resource Service Financial Management Service Logistics Management Service Internal Affairs Service Intelligence and Investigation Service Plans and Operations Service Legal and Prosecution Service Compliance Service International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs Service Preventive Education and Community Involvement Service Special Enforcement Service Laboratory Service The PDEA have established 17 Regional Offices headed by Directors in the different regions of the country, responsible for the implementation of RA 9165 and the policies and projects of the agency in different regions.

Regional Office - National Capital Region - PDEA Annex Bldg. National Government Center, Quezon City Regional Office I - Camp Diego Silang, San Fernando City, La Union Regional Office II - Camp Adduru, Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Regional Office III - Diosdado Macapagal Government Center, Brgy. Maimpis, City of San Fernando, Pampanga Regional Office IVA - Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba City, Laguna Regional Office IVB - Filipiniana Complex, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro Regional Office V - Camp General Simeon Ola, Legazpi City, Albay Regional Office VI - Camp Martin Delgado, Iloilo City, Iloilo Regional Office VII - RR Landon St. Cebu City, Cebu Regional Office VIII - Near Payapay Bridge, Palo, Leyte Regional Office IX - Upper Calarlan, Zamboanga City Regional Office X - Gordiel Bldg. Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental Regional Office XI - Camp Captain Domingo E. Leonor, Davao City, Davao del Sur Regional Office XII - Camp Fermin G. Lira Jr. General Santos City, South Cotabato Regional Office XIII - Camp R. Rodriguez, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte Regional Office - Cordillera Administrative Region - Camp Bado Dangwa, La Trinidad, Benguet Regional Office - Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao - PC Hills, Cotabato City, Maguindanao PDEA maintains its own PDEA Academy temporarily located at Camp General Mariano N. Castañeda in Silang, Cavite.

The PDEA Academy is headed with the rank of director. It

Felicia nordenstamii is a flowering shrub in the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is found only in South Africa where it grows on limestone hills close to the sea on the southern coast. Felicia nordenstamii is a many-branched shrub growing up to 30 cm tall; the lower parts of the stems are covered in grayish brown bark and the upper stem has many crowded, upwardly angled, alternate leaves with long hairs on the lower surfaces. Large flower heads form at the tips of the branches, each about 4​1⁄2 cm across, with about thirty purplish blue ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets. Felicia nordenstamii is a branched shrub of up to 30 cm high, strongly woody at its base. Where it has lost its leaves in lower part of the stem, it is covered with grayish brown bark. In the leaf-covered younger parts, the stem carries long hairs; the leaves are set alternately along the stem, densely crowded, at an upward angle, without a stalk, narrowly inverted egg-shaped, about 11 mm long and 3 mm wide, with an entire margin, somewhat curved upwards, the lower surface with long hairs, the upper surface hairless.

The large flower heads are set individually at the end of flower stalks of up to 1 cm long, covered in dense long woolly hair. Surrounding each flower head are three to four rows of unruly arranged bracts that together form the so-called involucre, up to 15 mm in diameter; these bracts are lance-shaped, about 2 mm wide, of varying length. The outer bracts are long-haired, about 14 mm long, the inner hairless, about 7 mm long. Thirty female ray florets, have purplish blue straps of about 15 mm long and 2 mm wide, are hairy in the upper part of the tubular section at its base; these surround numerous bisexual disc florets with a yellow corolla of about 6 mm long, hairy in the middle part. In the center of each corolla are five anthers merged into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens, hoovering up the pollen on its shaft. At the tip of both style branches is a narrowly triangular appendage. Surrounding the base of the corolla are many, yellowish white, more or less deciduous pappus bristles, all about equal in length at 6 mm.

The yellowish brown to reddish, one-seeded, indehiscent fruits called cypsellae are elliptic in outline, about 3.5 mm long and 2 mm wide, with a ridge along the margin. The cypselae of the ray florets are hairless. Flowering occurs from September to October. Like Felicia echinata and F. westae, together with which F. nordenstamii constitutes the section Anhebecarpaea, it has firm regularly and densely set leaves on the younger parts of the stems, distinguishing them from all other Felicia species. The dense and woolly hairs, the long inner involucral bracts, the narrowly obovate leaves set at an upward angle, set it apart from F. echinata and F. westae. It has a likeness to Polyarrhena imbricata, which lacks the woolly hairs, large involucral bracts, has white ray florets, tinged purple on the underside; as far as known, Felicia nordenstamii was first collected just east of Cape Agulhas by Terence Macleane Salter in 1934. It was recognized as a distinct species by Jürke Grau in his 1973 Revision of the genus Felicia.

The species is considered to be part of the section Anhebecarpaea. The species was named in honor of Rune Bertil Nordenstam, a Swedish botanist that collected two specimens of this plant in 1962. Felicia nordenstamii is only known from limestone ridges just east of Cape Agulhas and near the Potberg. Felicia nordenstamii is considered near threatened, it grows only at about fifteen locations spread over and area of about 1,000 km2. A substantial part of its habitat was lost over due to urban expansion around Struisbaai, it grows on several limestone ridges. Its habitat is degraded over its entire range because of invasive Acacia species. Photos of Felicia nordenstamii on iNaturalist Line drawing of Felicia nordenstamii Distribution of Felicia nordenstamii