Naveen Naqvi at NBC News:
At least 200 people, most in their twenties or thirties, partied away at a recent warehouse party and danced as a U.K.-based DJ played Danny Howells’ album for Global Underground.
Many stood on high platforms, their hands and eyes raised to the DJ’s booth on a balcony. They wore glow-in-the-dark bracelets, sunglasses, designer sports wear, and canvas shoes.
The scene could have been in London or New York, but this “rave” took place in the industrial area of Karachi, where you could name your poison and have it within minutes.
Dealers dressed in baseball caps, baggy jeans and loose t-shirts milled around selling ecstasy for as low as $11 and as high as $25 a tab, cocaine for about a $100 a gram, acid for $10 a hit, and fifty grams of hashish for about $15.
The gathering, one of many in Pakistan’s financial capital, demonstrated how the drug culture common to many Western capitals, has made inroads in one of the world’s strictest Islamic states.
More here.