Federal B. Area
Federal B Area (Urdu: فیڈرل بی ایریا ) is a residential area of Gulberg Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, thousands of federal government employees have migrated to Pakistan and faced housing crisis. In 1953, Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra had initiated the housing scheme for low-paid government employees and it was named as Mansura but it was popularized as Federal B Area.[1]
There are several ethnic groups in Federal B Area including Muhajirs, Memons, Bohras, Ismailis, etc. Over 99% of the population is Muslim. The population of Gulberg Town is estimated to be nearly one million.
When Pakistan came into being the port city of Karachi was chosen as the capital of the federation. An area within Karachi was selected to serve as the home of federal government offices and employees and house other important buildings. This area was named as Federal Capital Area or F.C. Area. The residential area around F.C. Area came to be known by the people as Federal B Area or F.B. Area.
The area surrounding the FC and FB Area was designated as Buffer Zone, all residential construction was barred in the buffer zone to keep the main population of the city of Karachi at bay from the sensitive FC Area. However, when the capital of Pakistan was moved from Karachi to Islamabad, the Federal Capital Areas name changed to Federal B Area as it is known in 2012.
A number of blocks of the area are more popular by their alternate names. This includes Azizabad which is block, Naseerabad which is block 14 and Dastagir which includes a number of blocks.