It has its own Pashtun community and wants the Pashtuns in Afghanistan to be as influential as possible.
Political parties are organised along ethnic or sectarian lines, and represent the city's Urdu-speakers, Sindhis, Baloch, Pashtuns and Barelvi Sunnis.
The influx of ethnic Pashtuns from northwest Pakistan upset the delicate demographic balance last month in the port city of Karachi.
They are mostly Pashtuns, who predominate in southern Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan.
The Pashtuns tend to live in poor, rundown neighborhoods on the fringes of Karachi, especially in its northern reaches, where roads lead out of the city.
Karzai, in his efforts to mollify his restive fellow-Pashtuns, has made conciliatory gestures to the Taliban which have alienated Tajiks and Uzbeks who helped him come to power.
Karzai is, after all, a Pashtun and given the fact that Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group, the next president of Afghanistan almost certainly will be a Pashtun.
And by building roads and creating jobs and business opportunities for the Pashtuns, the Pakistani government, with American help, could counter the money and other material blandishments offered by the extremists.
Recent estimates suggest Pashtuns comprise nearly half the population.
You had a very small number of Americans inside a province alone and the Afghans that we're working with were Pashtuns, who had previously been allied with the Taliban and with al Qaeda.
The Pashtuns subscribe to a tribal way of life in that the elders make decisions for the entire region and the elders have ultimate say-so as to what is supposed to happen and what is not supposed to happen.
NPR: Pakistan and Afghan Presidents meet to Discuss Security
From the start, the Pakistan army objected to the occupation of Kabul by the Afghan Northern Alliance, the initial domination of the government by non-Pashtuns, and the refusal of the Americans to involve Pakistan in helping rebuild the Afghan army.
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