Karachi walay have developed a grudge against PTI not because of them being better or worse than PPP/MQM but because they continue to hide behind 18th Amendment and are unable to the make the provincial government do anything.
Before 2018 elections everyone in Karachi was already aware of 18th amendment and how people of interior Sindh will still impose these Sindhi waderas on us, that is the very reason a federal level party like PTI was voted for and regional party like MQM was "rejected". The logic being that if PTI have the federal government they will strong arm and force the Sindh government to stop being a b_tch. However, PTI proved to be very weak and do not seem to take any action against the Sindh government. That coupled with the fact that IK himself hardly ever comes to Karachi to atleast pay lipservice to the people's troubles.
Recently in the last couple of months there has been a release of funds to MNAs and local streets are being carpeted and water/sewerage lines being put in. This needs to continue till 2023 for PTI to have any chance from Karachi.
Bro, I've come to realize that the solution isn't in giving Karachi autonomy.
Why?
Because there'll always be some actor who'd want to reverse it. This is a Pakistan-wide problem, and the true solution lies in changing the system so that (1) everyone benefits and (2) prevents reversals.
IMO the only solution is the removal of the provincial system.
We should be a unitary country broken into dozens of small districts, and each district gets a locally elected government that runs everything (e.g., infrastructure, education, healthcare, etc).
Karachi would be one such district.
Each district works out a tax revenue sharing agreement with the center, and renegotiates every 3-5 years based on the district's needs and output. So we know Karachi will need rebuilding, so for the first 5 years; in this case, it'd be a net-taker (i.e., the gov't gives 20-30% on top of 100% of Karachi's revenue), and after that, Karachi starts giving to the center in small increments until it reaches 30-40% (after 20 years).
Otherwise, we give the districts autonomy in everything. If some of them want to live in the stone age, I say we let them. Eventually, the people who dislike those state of affairs will move to another district, and IMO the bad ones will gradually die out (there's no provincial system to hide stragglers).
This is the system that would work, but who's going to implement it? We've got too many people up top with a vested interested in screwing out hardworking people. Karachi is the melting pot of the problems, but these issues affect everyone trying to do better in Pakistan.