Multan to Karachi on the M-5: Eleven Hours Down the Indus
Multan to Karachi is 890 kilometres and about eleven hours, running down the M-5 through Sukkur then the M-9 from Hyderabad. It is motorway nearly the whole way. Sukkur at five hours is the natural break. A sedan handles it comfortably.
Updated 25 June 2026
The route
From Multan the M-5 runs south through Jalalpur, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan to Sukkur — a modern motorway that replaced a long and tiring stretch of the old N-5.
From Sukkur the road continues through interior Sindh to Hyderabad, then the M-9 covers the final 165 kilometres into Karachi.
Eleven hours is realistic with stops. The seeded figure many operators quote is twelve, which is fair if you are stopping properly for a meal.
Where to break it
Sukkur, at about five hours from Multan, is the obvious halfway point. It has hotels, fuel and food, and the Sukkur Barrage and Lansdowne Bridge are worth twenty minutes if you have them.
Bahawalpur at ninety minutes is too early to be a real break but is a good first fuel stop.
Hyderabad at nine hours is close enough to Karachi that stopping there is usually not worth it unless you are ending the day.
Cost and vehicle
Fuel and tolls are inside the fare, and the return leg is already accounted for. A same-day return costs less than two singles.
A Corolla Altis Grande or a Civic is the standard booking on this route and is comfortable for eleven hours. For a family with luggage, a BR-V or Sportage.
Because our head office is in Multan, this route starts from our own yard, which makes it one of the better-priced long routes we run.
Timing considerations
Leaving Multan early morning puts you into Karachi in the evening, which is the usual shape. Leaving at midday means arriving after dark, which is fine on motorway but less pleasant at the Karachi end.
Karachi's traffic at the end of the journey is the variable nobody plans for. The M-9 delivers you quickly to the city edge and then the last twenty kilometres can take an hour.
For flights out of Karachi, treat the airport as a separate leg and build in time for it.
Stops worth making
Bahawalpur is ninety minutes in and has Noor Mahal and Darbar Mahal, both of which are worth an hour if you have started early and are not in a rush.
Sukkur at the halfway point has the barrage and the Lansdowne Bridge, and both are visible from the road with a five-minute detour rather than a proper excursion.
Beyond Sukkur the route is largely functional. If you want a day with sightseeing in it, put it in the first half and plan the second half as driving.
Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur both sit close enough to the motorway to make an overnight stop practical if you would rather split the journey somewhere other than Sukkur, and both have better hotels than the halfway point does.