Good info. Thanks
Kehkashaan shopping center probably has the best hand work - but their prices are steep especially for shaadi season. Definitely quality work. Er...I mean rip offs of Karma, Umar Saeed, and Nomi Ansari type stuff.
Gulf shopping center - you have to look around. The handiwork isn't as neat, but their turn around time is faster and rates are lower. I actually found some wonderful designs there, but you really need to take them a magazine picture and show them what you want. They tend not to do anything too complicated though.
There are some other places as well. I used to buy raw cloth of color and texture of my choice, and then have them do the embroidery. But honestly, it is such a headache. Best thing is roam around at boutiques - not the high end stuff like "Designers", etc - but some of the 2nd tier and 3rd tier boutiques. They have pretty good designs, they're ready made, and more-over, most are willing to do alterations, sometimes even for free. They key is to go shopping around the time they're all having clearance sales, which from my experience has been the first week of June. I don't know when their winter clearance sales go on. Go towards Tariq Road and Bahadurabad area, and around the Dollmen Mall, and you'll find loads of these sorts of shops. I ended up being in Karachi, incidentally around the time they had all these sales, so we made killer purchases, and did most of our wardrobe in one shopping trip. My "fancy" suits were no more than 2000 ruppees.
The other hint I have is try to find ready-made 3 piece suits. All you need is to find someone to stitch them together. In fact, you could do it yourself if you have a sewing machine.