Che in Karachi: Yes, that's the great Marxist revolutionary and legend, Che Ernesto Guevara, standing along side Pakistan's first military dictator, Ayub Khan.
Guevara stayed for a short while in Karachi during his whirlwind tour of Arab and third world countries (in 1959). He again visited Karachi in 1965 and that is when the above photograph was believed to have been taken (inside the VIP lounge of the Karachi Airport).
It is interesting to see Che standing with Ayub Khan whose military coup (in 1958) was not only backed by the US, but was also highly repressive of leftist forces in Pakistan.
The irony is that the widespread leftist uprising in Pakistan in the late 1960s that helped topple the Ayub dictatorship was mainly led by leftist students many of whose icon and hero was, yup, one named Che Ernesto Guevara!
Resources: Adnan Farooq (Viewpoint Magazine); Shahid Saeed (Friday Times).
PIA press ad, 1965: This 1965 PIA ad (published in Dawn) bares claims that one can't even imagine PIA to make in this day and age.
Pakistan's national carrier has been crumbling for the last many years and today stands on the verge of bankruptcy. And yet, back in the 1960s and early 1970s, PIA stood strong and proud, awarded on multiple occasions and being a constant on the list of top ten airlines of the world!
When this ad appeared in print, PIA was enjoying rapid growth within and outside Pakistan. It had already been noted for having 'the most stylishly dressed air hostesses', great service, a widespread route and, ahem, 'having a generous and tasteful selection of wines, whiskeys and beers' on offer.'*
*Serving alcoholic drinks on PIA was banned in April 1977.
Resources: Capt. Sami Mirza (former PIA pilot); Illustrated Weekly (June, 1968 edition); Pakistan Economist (April, 1978 issue).
PPP formation, 1967: It's amazing how little is available by way of any visual documentation of what was perhaps one the most iconic events in the history of Pakistani politics – i.e. the formation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) during a convention in Lahore in 1967.
The convention gave birth to a populist democratic party that for the next four decades would go onto become both passionately loved, as well as loathed by Pakistanis in equal measure.
Chaired by the suave and yet exuberant Z. A. Bhutto, the convention was attended by some of the country's leading progressive and leftist intellectuals, journalists and radical student leaders.
This photo shows Bhutto seated among the men who would turn the PPP into a fervent progressive platform that not only accommodated committed Marxists, Maoists, 'Islamic Socialists' and liberals alike, but would also go on to sweep the 1970 general election (in former West Pakistan). The most endearing characteristic of the image is the way J. A. Rahim (an otherwise serious and sombre Marxist thinker and PPP's leading ideologue) is actually sitting on Bhutto's lap!
Rahim was one of the founders (along with Z. A. Bhutto) of the PPP and co-author of the party's original socialist-democratic manifesto.
Unfortunately in 1975, Rahim had a falling out with Bhutto and was humiliatingly expelled from the party.
Bhutto, on the other hand, was hanged by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in 1979 through a sham trial, taking with him what still remains to be one of the most populist, dynamic and yet, contradictory eras in Pakistani politics.
Resources: PPP – The first phase (Hasan Askari Rizvi); PPP-Rise to Power (Philip Jones).
House full: Pakistani film industry and cinemas began experiencing a creative and financial peak in the late 1960s; a high that would last till about 1979, before starting to patter out in the 1980s and hitting rock bottom a decade later.
There were a number of reasons for the rapid fall of the industry and the consequential closing down of numerous cinemas.
Two of the leading reasons were the brutal censorship policies of the reactionary Ziaul Haq dictatorship in the 1980s, and the arrival of the VCR.
As Zia's so-called 'Islamisation' process began stuffing public space and collective socialising spots with moral policing and restrictions, the people took their entertainment indoors.
Cinemas were hit the worst by this as not only the 'respectable' audiences stopped frequenting cinemas; the Pakistani film industry too began to fall apart.
'Illegal' video shops renting Indian films and porn (allowed to openly operate after bribing the police) sprang up and cinemas began to be torn down by their owners and turned into gaudy shopping malls.
For example, in Sindh alone there were over 600 cinemas between 1969 and 1980, but only a few hundred remained by 1985.
Similarly, the Pakistani film industry used to generate an average of 20 Urdu films a year in the 1970s, but by the late 1980s, it was struggling to come out with even five a year.
The above photo was taken in 1969 outside Karachi's famous Nishat Cinema. It was also one of the first cinemas to introduce in-house air-conditioning in cinemas in Pakistan. The picture shows a crowd of cine-goers gathered outside the already packed cinema waiting their turn to see the premiere of a Pakistani war flick, 'Qasam uss waqt ki.'
Nishat survived the thorny Zia years, the VCR invasion and the local film industry's collapse.
In fact Nishat still stands, reeking out a survival by running latest Indian and Hollywood films.
Resources: 50 years of Pakistani Cinema (Mushtaq Gazdar). Aqeel Jafiri (personal collection).
Just before the fall: This is the front page of Dawn that appeared only days before Pakistani troops surrendered meekly to the Indian army in former East Pakistan (December, 1971).
It is easy to spot the haunting irony on the page that is splashed with disastrous reports about the Pakistani war effort and an impending sense of doom – and yet (on the bottom right) there is a quarter-page ad placed by a large trading company showing the emblems of the Pakistan army, air-force and navy and assuring us that 'Inshallah (God willing), the victory would be ours.'
In hindsight, one can suggest that denial is not exactly so new a trait that Pakistanis have acquired, post-9/11; because the truth is that to most Pakistanis the stunning 1971 surrender actually came as a rude and shocking surprise.
State-owned media and the armed forces had continued to claim that Pakistani forces were on the verge of a glorious victory right till (or just before) the final fall.
In fact, in the bulletin read out on Radio Pakistan only hours before the final defeat, the newscaster had reported that the Pakistan military was 'continuing to deliver numerous setbacks and losses to the Indian army'. And we lapped it all up, like a kid smilingly licking an imaginary popsicle.
Resources: A History of Radio Pakistan (Nihal Ahmed).
Taliban, who? No, this is not an image from a bygone hippie flick. It is a picture of real hippies enjoying a few puffs of hashish on the roof of a cheap hotel in Peshawar in 1972. Yes, Peshawar.
Pakistan was an important destination that lay on what was called the 'hippie trail' – an overland route taken by young western and American bag-packers between 1967 and 1979 and that ran from Turkey, across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, usually ending in Nepal.
Numerous low-budget hotels and a thriving tourist industry sprang up (in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi) to accommodate these travellers.
The hippie trail began eroding after the 1977 military coup in Pakistan, the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the beginning of the Afghan civil war (in 1979).
Resource: Eddie Woods (Photo)
Tequila twist! One of the rare photographs available of Karachi's famous nightclub scene of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Live music, great food, lots of booze and dancing were the hallmarks of the scene. Shown here is a club band playing to a happy audience at a 'mid-range' nightclub in Karachi (in 1972).
According to former nightclub owner and entrepreneur, Tony Tufail, 'Karachi would have gone on to become what Dubai later became if not for the ban.'*
*Nightclubs were closed down in April 1977.
Resource: Understanding Karachi (Arif Hassan); Instant City (Steve Inskeep).
Moonwalkers in Karachi, 1973: How many of you know or remember that the entire crew of NASA's Apollo 17 flight to the moon visited Pakistan? In July 1973, astronauts of the United State's last mission to the moon arrived in Karachi.
Their visit was widely covered by the press and Pakistan Television (PTV). The astronauts were also honoured by a 'welcome motorcade procession' that travelled from Clifton Road till Tower area.
The photograph shows the motorcade reaching the Saddar area that was decorated with Pakistani, American and PPP flags and colourful banners.
Some of the astronauts travelled in an open truck (see picture). The truck also carries a banner that reads (in Urdu): 'Welcome to the Apollo 17 astronauts.'
Resource: US Consulate General-Pakistan.
Safer days, shorter walls: This is a 1974 picture of Karachi's iconic Pearl Continental Hotel (then called theIntercontinental). Notice the short walls of the hotel, hardly 3 and a half feet tall!
Now compare them with the tall, thick walls and the chaotic barbed wire that surround the same hotel today and what with all the concrete barriers and dozens of armed security personnel that one has to go through.
Resource: Dawn
Say, Vat? Nothing extraordinary about this old 1975 Urdu film poster of a movie released at a time when the country's film industry was booming. However, check out the bottle of whiskey, Vat-69.
This brand of whiskey (according to late filmmaker and cinema historian, Mushtaq Gazdar), appeared in hundreds of Pakistani films between 1950s and late 1970s. But why Vat 69?
Gazdar wasn't sure, but he did notice that (for whatever reasons), this brand of whiskey was used by most Pakistani directors if they had to show a 'good person' drowning their sorrows with the help of a stiff drink, whereas other brands were used if a 'bad person' was shown having a shot or two.
Also, bars and nightclubs in Karachi, though stuffed with local brands of beer, vodka and whiskey, mainly stocked Vat 69 as their vintage foreign/imported brand.
Interestingly, after sale of alcohol was banned in 1977 (to Muslims), Vat 69 lost its iconic status and was replaced by local brands (such as Lion Whiskey) now available in 'licensed wine shops' in Karachi and the interior Sindh, and Black Label stocked by enterprising bootleggers.
At the art of it all: This 1975 photograph shows a group of some of Pakistan's famous painters and sculptors with a visiting British artist at the Karachi Arts Council. Check out the flares, the sideburns and all. And they're smoking inside the building. Awesome.
Marriot, 1977: This is a 1977 photograph showing Islamabad's Marriot Hotel (then called Holiday Inn) being constructed. Almost three decades later this famous hotel was blown up by suicide bombers and/or psychotics who were in a hurry to reach the rooms their handlers had booked for them in paradise.
Notice the almost barren area in front of the hotel – a far cry from the wide roads, traffic signals and lines of trees and traffic that surrounds the area today.
Talking heads: A terrific 1975 photograph of a scholarly talk show on PTV. Intellectual talk shows were rather popular on TV in Pakistan in the 1970s. This one shows renowned playwrights, Ashfaq Ahmed and Bano Qudsia (centre right), talking about 'socialist plays' with the host.
Damned greatness: A 1976 photo of Pakistan's Nobel Prize winning scientist, Dr. Abdus Salam (right), with a colleague at a summer college held at Pakistan's scenic Nathiyagali resort.
Considered to be one of the greatest minds produced by Pakistan, Dr. Salam, a devout member of the Ahmadi community, was associated with various scientific and developmental projects undertaken by the government from the 1950s till 1974.
He quit and left Pakistan in protest after the Ahmadis were declared as non-Muslim (in the 1973 Constitution).
However, he kept returning to the country on the invitation of friends, but he never reconciled with those who'd pushed to declare his community a non-Muslim minority in the country of his birth and work.
Resources: Abdus Salam Archives (Picture).
Hippie invasion: Cover of the soundtrack album (LP) of 1974 box-office hit, Miss Hippie. The film depicted the 'effect hippie lifestyle and fashion were having on Pakistani youth.' (sic)
Starring popular 1970s Pakistani film actress, Shabnam, the film conveniently forgot that more than half of the hashish that was being consumed by the 'invading hippies' was actually being produced and smuggled in and from Pakistan!
Pray tell: Photograph showing late Pir Pagara talking to the press at the Karachi Press Club in 1977. Pagara was heading a right-wing movement against the Z. A. Bhutto regime.
Here he is seen talking to the press (surrounded by some members of the Jamat-i-Islami, Jamat Ulema Islam and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan).
The men then got up to say their evening prayers.
However, a commotion broke out between the religious leaders of the movement when JI and JUI men refused to pray behind JUP leader, Shah Noorani.
JUI was inclined towards Sunni Deobandi school of thought whereas Noorani was from the pro-Barelvi JUP. Though united in their opposition to Bhutto's 'socialism', both men thought the other was a 'misguided Muslim.'
The King wuz here: Rare poster of Indian Ghazal king (and queen) Jagit & Chitra's tour of Lahore in 1979. They held a series of successful concerts, with the most colourful one taking place in the city's historical Shalimar Gardens.
Not in our name: Women organisations were at the forefront of the many movements that took place against the brutal Ziaul Haq dictatorship. This 1980 photograph is from a violent protest held by female college students (in Lahore) against the Zia regime's 'masochistic attitude' towards women.
Resources: Herald (April, 1980).
Desperado, 1981: This is a rare photograph of notorious Pakistani left-wing radical, Salamulla Tipu, hanging out from the cockpit of a PIA plane that he had hijacked with three other colleagues in 1981.
Tipu, a leftist student leader from Karachi, had joined Murtaza Bhutto's Al-Zulfikar Organisation (AZO) to instigate an urban guerrilla war against the Ziaul Haq dictatorship (1977-88).
The plane was hijacked from Karachi, flown to Kabul and then to Damascus. Tipu and co. (armed with AK-47s and hand grenades), only released the passengers after the Zia regime agreed to release 50-plus political prisoners from jails.
In 1984, however, in an ironic twist of fate, Tipu the Marxist revolutionary, was executed by the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul after he'd fallen out with Murtaza Bhutto, while the other hijackers travelled to Libya where they are said to be still living.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, addresses a rally at Muhammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi in 1969. (Photo courtesy of eBay.)
The rally was held immediately after a protest movement led by leftist students; labour and journalist unions; political parties, including PPP and the National Awami Party (NAP), had forced Pakistan's first military dictator Ayub Khan, to resign.
Construction of the mausoleum began in the early 1960s and was still underway when the rally was held. Wooden ladders and planks being used for construction purposes were acrobatically utilised by the crowd to gain vantage viewing points on the day of the rally.
Army troops patrol the streets opposite Club Road and near PIDC building in Karachi, during the anti-Ayub Khan protest movement in 1969.
The picture was taken by a foreign tourist from his room at the Hotel Intercontinental (now, Pearl Continental), which is situated diagonally opposite the PIDC building.
Legendary jazz saxophonist and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, visited Pakistan during his whirlwind tour of Asia and the Middle East in the early 1950s. Here, he is seen playing his sax with a Sindhi snake charmer at a public park in Karachi in 1954.
Famous Hollywood stars Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger arrive at Lahore Airport, 1954. The actors arrived in Lahore with a full filming crew to shoot a major portion of the film 'Bhowani Junction.'
Ava Gardner shooting a scene at the Lahore Railway Station in 1954.
Pakistani fans and artistes gather around the main cast of Bhowani Junction on the film's sets in Lahore.
American tourists enjoy a camel ride at Karachi's Clifton beach in 1960. [Video grab from a 1960 tourism promotional film made by Pan Am]
A series of apartment blocks, bungalows, fast-food joints and restaurants have sprung up in the area today – but no tourists, especially not the bikini-wearing kind.
A 1964 PIA press ad featuring famous Hollywood comedian and actor Bob Hope.
PIA was one of the first airlines in the world to introduce in-flight entertainment. It regularly featured in all the prestigious top-10-airline lists for over 20 years, before dropping out in the mid-1980s.
This is a 1967 press ad published in LIFE magazine for the American insurance company, Continental Insurance.
The number of American and British tourists visiting Pakistan began to grow from the early 1960s. The trend hit a peak in the late 1970s before starting to dwindle and peter out in the mid-1980s.
It (in a tongue-in-cheek manner) addresses those traveling to Karachi and getting injured during a 'camel crash.'
American Embassy building under construction in Karachi, 1957. (Photo courtesy of eBay.)
Completed in the late 1950s, the building became an iconic structure on Karachi's Abdullah Haroon Road.
Apart from having a busy visa section, it also housed a state-of-the-art projection hall and a widespread library, which was used by generations of Karachi's school and college students before it was closed down in the late 1990s.
Easy to access across the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – the building was gradually barricaded and heavily fortified after the tragic September 11 episode in 2001. The visa section was moved to Islamabad, before returning to Karachi in 2012 (in a different building and compound).
This building faced at least four terrorist attacks between 2002 and 2006 and survived them all.
Though the US consulate has now moved to a different location in Karachi, the building still stands.
Part of the cast and crew of Pakistan Television (PTV)'s 1970 play, 'Shazori,' at a reception given in their honour by Canada Dry beverages company.
Shakeel (third from left) became a heartthrob and sex symbol, being cast in a number of famous PTV plays as a hero throughout the 1970s. He also tried his luck in films but failed to gain the kind of popularity he enjoyed on television.
Today, in his sixties, he still appears on the mini-screen as a character actor.
Newspaper ad (taken from DAWN's 7 February, 1972 edition) announcing the arrival of a Lebanese belly dancer in Karachi.
Between the early 1960s and late 1970s, Karachi was dotted by a number of nightclubs that competed for clients by offering the best in-house pop bands, bars and professional belly dancers invited from cities like Beirut, Cairo, Tehran and Istanbul.
Nightclubs were ordered shut in 1977.
A vibrant 1973 poster prepared and printed by the Pakistan Ministry of Tourism to attract tourism to the city of Lahore.
A copy of famous spy novelist, Edward S. Arron's 1962 book 'Assignment Karachi.'
The book was one of the many he wrote that involved the adventures of CIA agent Sam Durell in various cities across the world.
This novel, which narrated the tale of Durell working with Pakistani authorities to capture Soviet-backed henchmen, became an instant best-seller in Pakistan.
However, in a quirky twist, some copies of this novel were set on fire by pro-Soviet leftist students during a demonstration (at the Karachi University) against Ayub Khan's education policy in 1962.
A 1967 tourism poster for Karachi (printed by American airline Pan Am and used in Europe and the US).
A special stamp released by government of Pakistan in 1973, to plead the return of the 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war captured by the Indian forces during the 1971 war.
Pakistan lost its eastern wing (East Pakistan) in the war. The break gave birth to Bangladesh.
A 1970 copy of a paperback version of the conspiratorial (and fictitious) book, 'Protocols of Zion,' printed in Pakistan in 1969.
The Protocols, a book describing a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, first appeared in Russia in 1903. It was written by an obscure Russian anti-Semite author (most probably as a novel), but was given a whole new angle and widespread publicity by anti-Semite American industrial tycoons like Henry Ford and then by the Nazi regime in Germany.
Though constantly debunked as a hoax and a farce, the book soon became popular among Arabs incensed by the creation of Israel in 1948.
The book was little known in Pakistan until the Saudi Arabian regime used Pakistani publishers to print it for the Saudi monarchy in 1969.
Millions of copies of the above-seen book were published between 1969 and 1976 in Pakistan. Most of them were shipped off to Arab countries. In fact late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia used to hand a copy to visitors. He was assassinated by his nephew in 1975.
Many copies also found their way back on the shelves in Pakistan's book stores. Initially, they became popular with anti-US leftist students, but by the mid-1980s, the book had almost entirely been adopted by the religious right.
It is interesting to note that almost no copies were published in Pakistan after the assassination of King Faisal in 1975, but newer editions with additions made by certain ulema, religious parties and Islamists in Pakistan, have been appearing ever since the 1980s.
The book has also been influential on popular conspiracy theorists in present-day Pakistan.
Two hippie tourists at a tea shop in Sibi, Balochistan, in 1972. .
Today, traveling to a Baloch town like the one in the picture has become a no-go area even for Pakistanis! (Photo courtesy Rory McLane).
A section of a bar in Karachi seen in 1974.
Before the sale of alcohol beverages was banned (to Muslims) in Pakistan in April, 1977, Karachi had the largest number of bars in the country.
This particular bar (called "Karachi On") was situated at Elphinstone Street, in the Saddar area of Karachi. The area was home to a number of nightclubs.
The picture belongs to Ali Huda Shah, whose maternal uncle was the owner of the bar. It was shut down in April 1977.
Today, though there are no public bars in Pakistan, however, licensed liquor outlets selling local beer, whiskey, gin and rum brands still operate in Karachi and the rest of Sindh.
The makers of these local brands are some of the leading tax-paying companies in the country.
A still from one of the most famous one-off plays on Pakistan television, 'Quratul Ain' (1975).
It starred Naveen Tajik (right), a Pakistani Christian, who, along with Roohi Bano and Uzma Gillani, was hailed as one of the finest TV actresses in Pakistan (in the 1970s).
'Quratul Ain' (scripted by Asfaq Ahmed) tells the story of a young man who wants to join the air force and is in love with a girl (Qurat).
Passionate about joining the air force, the young man is distraught after he begins to lose his eye sight.
Qurat tells him she doesn't care and that they should get married. The young man agrees but then vanishes. Not even his family knows about his whereabouts. Qurat waits for him but is finally coaxed by her father to find another man.
Many years later she accompanies her husband to a Sufi shrine from where she wants to buy some bangles.
As the husband goes looking for a bangles shop, Qurat stumbles upon a blind Sufi fakir (vagabond) selling bangles from a sack.
He has long hair and a beard. He asks for one of her hands so he could put the bangles over her wrist. It's her lost lover. She does not recognise him.
But he recognises her the moment he holds her hand. In shock, he lets go of his sack and her hand and vanishes into the crowd. It is left to the audience to figure out whether a surprised Qurat realises who the man was.
The play was part of PTV's 'Aik Muhabbat Soh Afsaney' series in which Sufi themes were set in modern urban settings.
Naveen, though hugely successful as a TV actress and fashion model, failed to make a mark in films. She left for the US in the early 1980s.
A shelf in a shop displaying Scotch whiskey brands in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's 'Bara market' (smugglers' market) in 1977.
The market was popular with both foreign tourists as well as Pakistanis coming from Karachi and Lahore to buy imported and/or smuggled cloth, clothes, shoes, electronic good and foreign whiskey brands.
The Bara area began to come under the influence of Islamist groups from the late 1980s and today the area has no such market and is in the grip of a violent and bloody conflict between armed fundamentalist outfits and the state of Pakistan.
Poster and still from 1975's Pakistani film, 'Dulhan Aik Raat Ki' (A Bride for One Night).
The flick was Pakistan's first Urdu film advertised as 'For Adults Only.' In the mid-1970s, British and American 'adult films' had become a hugely successful outing for young middle-class Pakistanis and couples, and by 1974-75, films (especially in Karachi) labelled 'For Adults Only,' were doing a roaring business.
Karachi's Rio Cinema and Palace Cinema became known for running such films (Rio today is a gaudy shopping mall while Palace was converted into a marriage hall).
Such films were mainly low-budget European and American romantic farces in which nudity scenes and sexual content were allowed to be shown by the censors, thus the tag: 'For Adults Only'.
Inspired by the period's 'Adult Film' phenomenon, Mumtaz Ali Khan directed Pakistan's first Urdu film that was 'For Adults Only.' It was appropriately called 'Dulhan Aik Raat Ki'.
Staring late Badar Munir (then known as the 'Charles Bronson of Pakistan) and a number of famous 1970s Punjabi and Pushtun film actresses, it was a raunchy fusion of violent Italian spaghetti westerns and 1970s European soft-porn.
It was disallowed a re-release in the 1980s by the Zia dictatorship and was only made available (on VHS) in the late 1980s. It is still not available on DVD, but can be found on VCD.
A video grab from PTV's groundbreaking coverage of the 1970 general elections.
Running consecutively for 48 hours, the 1970 election transmission was one of the first long duration live events telecast by PTV.
Seen in the picture is famous PTV anchor of the 1970s, Laeeq Ahmed, pointing at the number of seats (162) won by the Bengali nationalist party in former East Pakistan, the Awami League (AL).
In 1971 AL rebelled against the West Pakistan military establishment (for not giving it the democratic right to lead the new democratic regime as a majority party), and after a bloody civil war, East Pakistan broke away and became the independent Bengali republic of Bangladesh.
Notice how the host is holding a cigarette in his hand while discussing the election results. TV hosts commonly smoked on the air until the practice was discontinued in the early 1980s.
A 1974 press ad of Red & White cigarettes. Just like in other airports of the world at the time, smoking was allowed in all areas of Pakistani airports as well. The shoot for this ad took place at the old Karachi Airport that worked as a hub in the region and was one of the busiest airports in Asia receiving up to 60 flights in an hour from around the world.
The man is sitting at a famous waiting lounge/restaurant at the airport (Sky Grill) that also had a full bar and was the only place at the airport that was centrally air-conditioned.
Former Pakistani Test batsman Sadiq Muhammad (left) and former Pakistan cricket captain, Mushtaq Muhammad, share a beer in Sydney in January, 1977.
The picture was taken inside the players' dressing room at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Pakistan defeated a strong Australian Test side. This was Pakistan's first Test victory against Australia in Australia. With the victory, Pakistan squared the series 1-1 after being one down in the series. Seen in the background is a shirtless Imran Khan who took 12 wickets in the match.
Pakistan cricket team's famous pace duo, Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz, at a nightclub in Melbourne in 1981.
The picture was taken during Pakistan team's 1981 tour of Australia. Architects of various wins by the Pakistan team in the 1970s and early 1980s, Imran and Sarfraz who were both best friends but had a major falling out as politicians in the 1990s.
Sarfraz, a long-time Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporter, joined the PPP after retirement (in 1988) whereas Khan formed his own party (1996). Nawaz changed allegiances last year, when he switched to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
A 1973 photo of Nawaz Sharif. Sharif came from a business family and according to a biography (published in 2004), he was a music and film enthusiast and a PPP/Bhutto supporter at college (in the late 1960s).
In the 1970s his family had a falling out with the PPP regime it nationalised a large part of the Sharif family's businesses.
Nawaz joined politics in the 1980s, guided by anti-PPP dictator, Ziaul Haq. Today his party, the PML-N, is the second largest political party in Pakistan after the PPP.
End of an era: Karachi on the day the reactionary military junta led by Ziaul Haq toppled the Z A Bhutto regime (July 5, 1977). In the background is a large cinema that closed down in the 1980s.
A place that was also called Pakistan.
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Astronaut of NASA's Apollo 17 and his wife wave to fans on their arrival at Lahore Airport (1973).
A scene from Hollywood blockbuster 'Bhowani Junction' being shot outside a Lahore police station.
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A couple swings into action at a New Year's party at a nightclub at Karachi's Hotel Metropole (1957).
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A newspaper clipping (from Pakistan's daily, 'Morning News') with a report on how Pakistani pop fans gate-crashed their way into a bar at the Karachi Airport where the famous pop band The Beatles were having a drink. They had arrived in Karachi (1963) to get a connecting flight to Hong Kong. Between the 1960s and late 1970s the Karachi Airport was one of the busiest in the region. (Picture Courtesy: Sami Shah).
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Western tourists sunbathing on a Karachi beach (early 1960s).
A group of American tourists on a 'crabbing trip' in Karachi. 'Crabbing' (catching crabs) was a thriving tourist activity in Karachi where tourists would rent boats from the coastal Kimari area of the city and 'go crabbing.' The boats mostly belonged to men belonging to the 'Afro-Pakistani' community in Karachi and some of them had small barbecue kitchens and bars fitted in the boats. The boats are still there, but not the tourists.
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The Queen of England (Elizabeth II) meeting a welcoming committee during her visit to Karachi in 1961. She also toured many parts of the city with the then ruler of Pakistan, Field Martial Ayub Khan in an open-top limousine.
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Students sympathetic to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the left-wing National Students Federation (NSF) clash with the police and pro-government students in Karachi (1969). The student and labour movement between 1967 and 1968 had already toppled the dictatorship of Ayub Khan.
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Plainclothes cops nab a radical Pushtun nationalist student who was accused of firing shots from a concealed gun at Ayub Khan at a pro-Ayub rally in Peshawar (late 1968).
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A press ad in a Pakistani magazine announcing the launch of Canadian Club Whiskey in Pakistan (early 1960s). The whiskey was first made available at Karachi's horse racing and polo club (Race Course) and then introduced in the city's many bars.
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A West Pakistani clashes with an East Pakistani Bengali in Dhaka (1970).
Militant Bengali nationalists (Mukti Bhaini) aim at West Pakistan troops during the 1971 Civil War between West Pakistani military and East Pakistan nationalists. The Bengali nationalists picked up arms against the Pakistan military after accusing it of committing large scale massacres against Bengalis. Backed by India, the rebels defeated the West Pakistan military and East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
East Pakistani women march with guns on the streets of Dhaka in a show of defiance against the West Pakistan military establishment (1971).
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An early poster advertising the Pakistani beer brand Murree's first launch of 'light beers.'
Pakistani men take an adventurous ride on an Afghan taxi (1972). Every day thousands of Pakistanis crossed into Afghanistan for trade on such taxis. Many would also visit Kabul to watch latest Indian films in Kabul cinemas then return to Pakistan in the evening.
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A group of hippies (British, French and American) wait for a bus in Lahore (1972). Pakistan was an important destination on what was called the 'Hippie Trail.'
The trail was used by thousands of young European and American backpackers between the late 1960s and 1979. It was an overland route that began in Turkey, ran through Iran, curved into Afghanistan and Pakistan and then from India ended in Nepal.
A huge tourist industry sprang up in these countries to accommodate the backpackers. In Pakistan, the travelers entered Peshawar (from Jalalabad in Afghanistan). From Peshawar they went to Lahore. Some took a bus into India while others visited Karachi and Swat before returning to Lahore and crossed into India.
The trail closed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran; the beginning of civil war in Afghanistan; and due to the reactionary nature of the Ziaul Haq dictatorship that came to power in Pakistan in 1977.
A 1973 tourism brochure printed by the Pakistan Ministry of Tourism. The brochure had details of hotels, restaurants, bars and tourist spots that had sprung up on the Hippie Trail.
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A tourism bus operated by Pakistan's Ministry of Tourism taking western tourists on a sight-seeing ride in Karachi (1974). Such buses were decorated keeping in mind the time's 'hippie aesthetics.'
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A 1968 shot of a famous Karachi cinema, Taj Mahal. It was one of the many that operated during the heydays of Pakistan's film industry.
Between 1965 and 1977, the industry produced dozens of films every month. The trend hit a peak in 1975 when a total number of 114 Urdu films were released that year.
The industry began to wither away from the late 1970s due to the arrival of a reactionary dictatorship and then the growing popularity of the VCR.
Today the Pakistan film industry that was one of the most lucrative show-biz ventures in the country in the 1960s and 1970s is as good as dead.
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A classic early 1970s hand-painted billboard of actor and martial arts expert, Bruce Lee.
This particular billboard was painted in Lahore and was used to advertise Lee's 1973 blockbuster 'Enter the Dragon.' Just like in the West, Lee had become an icon and hugely popular with action film enthusiasts in Pakistan as well. His films did roaring business in cinemas and popularised the martial arts in Pakistan. Lee died a sudden death in 1973.
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A rare photo showing the Pakistan hockey team on its way to win the 1971 Hockey World Cup held in Barcelona, Spain. It defeated the host country in the finals.
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Wife of the Shah of Iran arrives at the Quetta Airport (1973). She was greeted by the then Balochistan governor, Mir Ghaos Baksh Beznjo, who belonged to the left-wing National Awami Party (NAP) that headed the government in Balochistan (after the 1970 election).
Ironically, Bezenjo and the NAP government in the province were dismissed by the Z A. Bhutto regime when the Shah of Iran warned Pakistan that NAP was instigating Baloch nationalist rebellion in the Iranian part of Balochistan.
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A 21-year-old Benazir Bhutto sitting on the porch of her father Z A. Bhutto's house in Karachi (1974). Benazir would go on to lead her father's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after he was hanged to death by General Ziaul Haq in April 1979.
In 1990s she was twice elected as Pakistan's prime minister before tragically losing her life at the hands of Islamic militants in December 2007.
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Cover of the May 1972 issue of The Herald. Herald (a monthly published by the Dawn Group) was initially a magazine focusing on the changing fashion, political and social trends of the urban Pakistani youth. However, from 1980 onwards it became more political in its content.
A 1973 issue of The Herald with a cover story on the then vibrant social scene of Karachi.
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Famous Pakistani model, Rakhshanda Khattak. She was one of Pakistan's leading fashion models in the 1970s before quitting and leaving the country in 1979. She died in the United States in 2011.
(The photo is from 1972). -Photo courtesy: Express Tribune
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A 1973 album cover (that was then turned into a poster) of Pakistani film playback singer and pop icon, Runna Laila. This poster became popular with college students and could be found gracing the walls of their hostel rooms right along-side posters of Che Gurevara, Mao tse Tung, etc.
Laila was a Bengali hailing from East Pakistan. Her songs attracted the attention and adoration of the Pakistani youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Though she did not leave West Pakistan after East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, she finally decided to go and become a Bangladeshi citizen in 1974.
A strange, alien place that was also called Pakistan.
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A 1955 bottle of Pakola. Every Pakistani knows about Pakola Ice-Cream Soda. The bright green coloured soft-drink that is also hailed (unofficially, though) to be 'Pakistan's national soft-drink.'
But for the first few years Pakola struggled to find a market for itself that was packed with popular soft-drinks such as Coca-Cola, 7Up and Bubble-Up.
Then in 1955 it even had to print the words 'Non-Alcoholic' on its bottles because thanks to its striking colour, some stores (in Karachi) actually began storing it alongside their stock of alcoholic beverages!
By the 1970s however, Pakola finally established itself as a popular soft-drink.
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The charismatic Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of the popular US President, J. F. Kennedy, visited Pakistan in 1962. Here she is seen riding in an open-top limo with the then ruler of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, in the Saddar area of Karachi jam-packed by young men and women who had gathered on both sides of the road to greet her.
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Crowds gather at a runaway at the Karachi Airport to witness a 'flying parade' and joint military exercises of American and Pakistani armed forces (1953).
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A modern 'rail car' made in Pakistan with the collaboration of Japanese engineers parked at the Lahore Railway Station in 1964. Popular with travellers wanting to move rapidly between cities, the cars were commissioned out of service in the 1980s.
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The iconic Mausoleum of Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, under construction in Karachi. This picture was taken in 1965. The imposing structure was finally completed almost five years later.
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A 1967 image of the American Embassy in Karachi. It was one of the most recognisable buildings in Karachi's Abdullah Haroon Road area.
Built in 1958, the Embassy, apart from handling the visa issuing operations, also had a large library.
As can be seen in the picture, it hardly had any barriers or security and its doors were open to all.
However, from the late 1980s onwards, when Islamist violence began to rise within Pakistan, the Embassy was fortified by a tall wall.
Later, especially after the tragic 9/11 event and after the building faced at least three terror attacks in the 2000s, the walls were thickened, barriers placed and security tightened.
The library that was hugely popular with Karachi's school and collage students was closed and the visa section was moved to Islamabad.
In 2011, the building was abandoned and the Embassy was moved to a different location in Karachi. The building still stands, though.
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A scene of a snow-covered street in Quetta (1968). The street, called Layton Road, today has lost almost all of the beautiful old trees that can be seen in the picture.
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The first pages of a detailed book written by a professional travel writer from the United States. The book was published in early 1962 – a time when various American airlines and travel writers were heavily promoting Pakistan as a tourist destination.
The image is that of Karachi's Zoological Garden that was then called the Gandhi Garden.
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A 1963 brochure printed by the government of Pakistan. The influx of western tourists arriving in the country had risen by the time this brochure was published. It contained maps and names of famous tourist spots, beaches, mountain resorts, hotels, nightclubs and bars in the country (both in West and former East Pakistan).
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A 1966 Pakistani press ad announcing the launch of famous Australian car, Valiant, in Pakistan. It was one of the first cars to be assembled in Pakistan. –Picture courtesy DAWN.
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Girls taking part in a swimming competition at a sports complex in Karachi in 1970.
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VHS cover of Pakistan's first horror and 'X-rated' film, Zinda Laash (The Living Dead). Released in 1967, the film was a huge hit in an era when the Pakistan's film industry was dishing out an average of 50 films a year, most of them romantic fantasies.
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This poster attacking the 'imperialist grip of the American CIA' over various 'third world countries' (including Pakistan) began appearing on the walls of colleges and universities of Karachi and Lahore in 1968. The poster was originally designed in South America but was reproduced in Pakistan by radical leftist student groups during their movement against the Ayub Khan dictatorship (1968-69). –Poster courtesy Rashid Chaudhry.
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Students belonging to the left-wing National Students Federation campaign during a student union elections at the Karachi University in 1969. –Picture courtesy: Tarek Fateh.
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The first men on the moon land in Pakistan. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (the first men to land on the moon), arrived in Karachi in early 1970 during their tour of South Asia. Here they are seen being greeted by an enthusiastic crowd just outside the Karachi Airport. –Picture courtesy LIFE.
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A young Pakistani woman sitting on her motorbike in the Soldier Bazzar area of Karachi (1969). –Picture courtesy Zarmeena P.
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The December 1971 cover of Time magazine. The main story detailed the breaking away of former East Pakistan (after a bloody civil war with the West Pakistan army) . The picture is that of a Bengali militant celebrating the defeat of the West Pakistan military.
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An intriguing June 1971 photograph of a West Pakistani soldier searching an East Pakistani Bengali in Dhaka (the former capital of East Pakistan). –Picture courtesy LIFE.
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Two displaced and poverty-stricken children stand in an open field surrounded by used artillery shells in a village in former war-torn East Pakistan (1971).
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A stamp celebrating Pakistan's victory in the 1971 Hockey World Cup held in Barcelona, Spain.
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A serene image of Peshawar's famous 'Kisa Kahani Bazaar' (Storytellers' Market) in 1972. A culturally rich and ancient marketplace, the area has continuously come under terrorist attacks by Islamist militants ever since the early 2000s.
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A college student poses in front of a street in Quetta in 1972.
Today, Quetta is plagued by brutal violence involving Sunni sectarian outfits, Baloch nationalist groups and the Pakistan military.
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A 1972 picture showing European visitors and local Christians seen during a passing out ceremony at a Catholic school in Rawalpindi. –Picture courtesy John Meacham.
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A young 8-year-old Shahrukh Khan (current Bollywood star) visited Pakistan with his family (as a tourist) in 1973. Here he is seen during his family's visit to Swat. –Picture courtesy Luqman Ghauri.
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A 1974 photograph showing the inside of a 'hashish house' in Quetta.
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A poster of 1973 film 'Operation Pakistan.' A B-grade film made by a Greek director, the film was released in Pakistan in 1973. It is about the adventures of an FBI agent who tracks down hashish smugglers in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. The characters of Pakistanis (seen below left) were all played by amateur Pakistani actors. The film was a box-office flop.
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An early 1970s press ad of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). PIA was considered to be one of the ten best airlines in the world between 1962 and 1980.
It constantly scored high for having 'best in-flight entertainment,' business class, 'most convenient connections', 'delicious cuisine' and 'a wide selection of wine, whiskeys and beer.'
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A 1973 press ad of the famous Hotel Midway House in Karachi. The hotel was owned and run by PIA. It was located near the Karachi Airport and was popular with tourists and locals alike for its barbeque restaurant and nightclub. It was eventually closed down in the mid-1980s.
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A 1974 T-Shirt.
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Tourism in Pakistan grew two-fold in the 1970s. This special stamp was issued
by the country's Ministry of Tourism in 1975.
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A Swiss tourist gets his car's tank filled at a gas station on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border (1974).
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A European tourist with two students of the Peshawar University in an old street of Peshawar (1974).
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A European tourist family outside a rest house in Murree, 1974.
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Tourists enjoy a buggy ride outside Peshawar's Hotel Intercontinental (1975).
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Pakistani actress and model, Bindia, at a cultural festival in Karachi (1975).
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Famous revolutionary poet, late Habib Jalib, enjoys a drink with veteran journalist, late Khalid Hassan, and friends at a restaurant in Karachi in 1975.
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Western tourists jam with a Pakistani tabla player in Karachi (1975).
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Pakistani test cricketers Sikandar Bakht and Javed Miandad in 1976.
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A 1978 French release of an album by famous Pakistani Qawali group, the Sabri Brothers.
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Cover of a live album by popular Indian ghazal duo, Jagjit and Chitra. The album was recording during one of the many live concerts the duo played during their tour of Pakistan in 1978.
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Altaf Gohar and Khalid Hassan with Noble Prize winning Pakistani scientist, Dr. Abdus Salam (centre) in the late 1970s.
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1977 cover of famous Pakistani Urdu magazine, Dhanak. Radical in its aesthetics, the magazine was hugely popular with young men and women. It covered fashion trends, ran film reviews and also had left-leaning articles on politics.
A number of noted progressive Urdu intellectuals such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Munir Niazi, Mumtaz Mufti, etc., wrote regularly for Dhanak.
It was edited and published by Sarwar Sukhera. In 1979 it became the first publication to be directly clamped down by the reactionary Ziaul Haq dictatorship that took over power through a military coup in July 1977.
Deemed as 'anti-Islam' by the Zia regime, Dhanak offices were attacked by Jamat-e-Islami goons and Sarwar was arrested for committing 'treason'.
Sarwar went into exile after the magazine was shut down. –Picture courtesy: Laleen Khan.
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A promotional shot of famous PTV play, Uncle Urfi (1975). It was one of the first PTV serials that is said to have 'made roads empty of cars and people' during the time of its telecast (8 PM every Saturday).
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A group of European tourists travelling and enjoying a cup of tea on a Pakistani train, 1976.
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A German tourist outside a ' hashish shop' in the tribal areas of former NWFP
(now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), 1976.
With the state of Pakistan having little influence in such areas, shops selling
hashish sprang up when young western tourists began to pour into Pakistan
from Afghanistan from the late 1960s onwards. (See also 'Hippie Trail' in
Also-Pakistan I, II and III).
Today however, these areas are strictly off-limits not only to foreigners but
also Pakistanis due to the war between Islamist insurgents and the Pakistan
military.
The fate of the shops is unknown. -Picture courtesy Dan Atkinson
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A special stamp released by the government of Pakistan to mark the centenary
of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi (1978).
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Before the great Janagir Khan and Jansher Khan in squash there was Qamar Zaman. Here he is seen arguing with the umpire while on his way to beat the then No: 1, the Australian, Jeff Hunt, during a final played in Karachi in 1976.
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An American Christian evangelist addressing Pakistani Christians and converts in a village near Abbotabad in 1977. -Picture courtesy Williamson
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Pakistani star batsman, Javed Miandad, smashes the stumps after being given
out LBW in a test match against India (1979).
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Imran Khan was one of the first Pakistani cricketers to appear in press ads and
TV commercials. Here he is seen with Indian batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, in a
1979 ad for Indian soft-drink, Thumbs-up.
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Pakistan Peoples Party supporters mourn and pray just outside the grounds
(in Rawalpindi) where PPP Chairman and former Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto, was hanged by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in April 1979. This picture
was taken in October 1979.
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Rare photo of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, shaking hands with future Baloch nationalist leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in Quetta, in 1948.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Bugti became a critic of the state and joined Sindhi, Baloch, Bengali and Pashtun nationalists to oppose the government of Pakistan.
In the 1970s however, he sided with the state and the populist government of Z A. Bhutto during the third Balochistan insurgency against the government and the Pakistan Army and was made the Governor of Balochistan.
Twenty years later Bugti once again turned anti-state, and in the early 2000s helped revive an armed insurgency in Balochistan. He was eventually assassinated by the Pakistan military in 2006 in a missile attack.
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The Pakistan hockey team playing against Great Britain at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
Notice how a Pakistani player is sprinting across the field completely barefooted!
This 1956 Pakistan team that was desperately low on resources and money not only topped its qualifying group in Melbourne, but went on to reach the finals of the tournament where it was beaten by India 1-0 in a closely fought contest.
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Famous Pakistani intellectual, novelist and playwright, Ashfaq Ahmad saying a prayer at the grave of British Romantic poet, Percy Shelly, in 1955.
Ahmad started out as a progressive thinker and writer with a growing interest in Sufism. In the late 1960s he went on to endorse and support Z A. Bhutto's 'Islamic Socialism'.
In the 1970s during the Z A. Bhutto regime he further rose to become one of the most respected intellectuals and TV playwrights in the country.
Most of his plays of the period revolved around the underlying social tensions between the liberal zeitgeist of the time, the early populist Socialism of the Bhutto regime, and the conservative strain of Islam that had begun to assert itself from 1976 onwards.
By the early 1980s Ahmad grew out of his former progressive and quasi-socialist mould and moved close to the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq.
As a playwright he attempted to provide the reactionary dictatorship a more soulful face through his TV plays of the 1980s.
He was hosting a well-received show on the philosophy of Sufism on PTV when he passed away in 2004.
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British fishing enthusiasts show off their big catch at one of Karachi's many beaches.
This picture was taken in 1957 when these men (father and son) set a record of sorts by catching a 60 lbs Barracuda from the waters of the famous Sandspit beach of Karachi.
Today this beach is considered to be too polluted to support fish like the one seen in the picture.
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A 1955 photograph of famous American painter and illustrator, Norman Rockwell, on a boat with a press photographer (right) and a Sindhi fisherman (left) at Karachi's famous Kemari area.
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Poster of Pakistan's 'first Socialist film', Jago Hoa Sawera.
The film was released in 1959 and was scripted by famous leftist intellectual and poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The story revolved around the daily struggles of a poverty-stricken family of a fisherman. The film is sometimes also believed to be the region's first 'art film'.
Though critically acclaimed, the film was a box-office flop. However, it did win a gold medal at the 1959 Moscow Film Festival.
Its director, A K. Kardar, also submitted it to be nominated in the Oscar's Best Foreign Film category, but the submission was rejected. Kardar explained the rejection as a sign of Hollywood's "ideological bias against art with Socialist content."
Nevertheless, the film was finally screened in the US 40 years later at the New York Film Festival in 2008.
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People waving Pakistani and American flags from the balconies of their apartments at Karachi's Burns Road as US President Dwight Eisenhower's motorcade passes by during his visit to Pakistan in 1959.
From the 1970s onwards, Burns Road became famous for inexpensive restaurants serving delicious Pakistani food, but today it is one of the most congested and polluted areas in Karachi.
The apartment building seen in the photo is still there but in a much depleted condition.
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A 1961 poster published by the Tourism Board of Pakistan to attract western tourists to visit the capital city of the rugged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Peshawar.
Although the poster showed Pashtun tribesmen with rifles, they were not allowed to carry them in the city.
However, Pashtun men with colourfully painted fake guns (as shown in the poster) were hired by the government for the tourists' amusement.
In the 1980s the guns became quite real during the US and Pakistan backed anti-Soviet 'Afghan jihad', and by the 1990s the tourists had all but disappeared.
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The Queen of England, Elizabeth, riding with Pakistani head of state, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, in an open-top car through the streets of the Saddar in Karachi during her visit in 1961.
Both sides of the road were packed and lined by college and school students and thousands of onlookers.
Till the early 1960s Saddar was one of cleanest areas in Karachi. Between the late 1960s and early 1970s it was lined with bars, nightclubs and famous shopping spots and became the place to be for middle-class Karachiites looking for entertainment and shopping.
Today, however, Saddar has become one of the city's most overcrowded and ragged areas; a sad shadow of its glorious past.
Karachi's Christian community was also largely concentrated here, and Saddar still has some of the most magnificent churches in Karachi.
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A 1962 photo showing Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of American President John F. Kennedy, disembarking from a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane at London's Heathrow Airport and being greeted by the plane's flying and cabin crew.
Ms. Kennedy went on record saying that PIA was one her favourite airlines.
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A mural painted by famous Pakistani painter, Sadequain, in 1961. In it the painter tried to capture the history of ancient Muslim philosophers, biologists, astrologers, mathematicians and chemists.
It was his homage to Muslim men of learning. It is said to be one of his finest and most ambitious works that was huge in both size and influence.
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A Pakistani girl, Aqba (second from left), seen here celebrating Christmas with US President, John F. Kennedy and his family at the White House in 1961.
Aqba who belonged to a working-class Pakistani family that had managed to migrate from Pakistan's Punjab province to the US city of Washington lost Aqba for a while when the young and extremely bright girl ran away from home and ended up outside the White House.
She was taken in by the President's family, gifted a dress (the one she is seen wearing in the picture), welcomed to celebrate Christmas with the President's wife and children, and then softly persuaded to rejoin her struggling family.
No one quite knows exactly what happened to Aqba, even though some reports suggested that she went on to graduate in Law from a Washington college and stayed in the US while her family returned to Pakistan in the 1980s.
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A group of fighter pilots of the Pakistan Air Force posing just hours before the start of the 1965 Pakistan-India war.
Some of these men never came back, while others were later send to Libya, Jordan and Saudi Arabia (in the 1970s) to train the air force of these countries.
The 1965 war however ended in an awkward stalemate.
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The Pakistan hockey team on its way to defeat India in the hockey semi-final of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Pakistan then went on to beat Australia in the final to win the hockey gold medal.
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A telling image from Pakistan's first horror and 'X-Rated' film, Zinda Lash (The Living Corpse) – a modern (and voluptuous) retelling of the story of vampires and Dracula in a Pakistani setting.
Released in 1967 the film became an instant box-office hit and was then repeatedly shown on the state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) during its late Saturday night film slot.
It was released on DVD in 2002.
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A 1966 photo of the beautiful Punjab University in Lahore. Notice the double-decker bus. Such buses were quite common in Lahore till the late 1960s.
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British journalist, Tom Waghorn, seen here typing a report while sitting on the slopes of Torkhum near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 1968.
Today this area is only ventured by violent Islamist militants and the Pakistan military. Even the local Pakistani Pashtuns fear to tread here, let alone Westerners.
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Special postal stamp issued by the government of Pakistan to celebrate the winning of the 1971 Hockey World Cup by the country's hockey team.
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Pakistani Test cricketer, Aftab Gul (third from left) and a friend (right) chatting with a couple of policemen during the Pakistan cricket team's tour of England in 1971.
Gul was a highly talented opening batsman and should have represented Pakistan in a lot more Tests than the six he played between 1969 and 1971.
It was not his talent that restricted him from becoming a regular in the team. It was rather his erratic temperament and issues of anger management that limited his playing career.
Gul was a fiery left-wing student leader and had led various student protest rallies against the Ayub Khan dictatorship in 1968.
But throughout his stint as a student leader and agitator, he continued to play cricket and was selected for the Pakistan side in 1969.
In spite of the fact that he scored heavily in his last series against England in 1971, he lost interest and began studying to become a lawyer.
Gul was also a passionate supporter of Z A. Bhutto and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
This was something rather common in the Pakistan cricket teams of the 1970s in which such illustrious players like Mushtaq Muhammad, Sarfraz Nawaz, Intikhab Alam and Javed Miandad were staunch Bhutto fans.
Gul returned to political activism in 1977 when the Bhutto regime was overthrown by Ziaul Haq in a military coup.
In 1980, Gul was accused by the dictatorship for allegedly being a member of Murtaza Bhutto's left-wing urban guerrilla outfit, the Al-Zulfikar (AZO).
Police claimed to have found Russian-made missiles from Gul's resident in Lahore. Gul escaped to London and stayed there in exile, only returning after Zia's demise in 1988.
Today he is a barrister in Lahore.
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Bodies of Bengali intellectuals, teachers, journalists and students lying in a ditch, 1971.
Thousands like these were killed in the former East Pakistan by the death squads operated by the Pakistan Army in 1970-71 for supporting Bengali nationalism and the separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan.
Bengali militant nationalists publicly executing suspected pro-West Pakistan Bengali collaborators after East Pakistan managed to separate and create the independent Bengali majority state of Bangladesh in January 1972.
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Cover of a 1972 PIA Wine & Spirits menu.
Between 1962 and 1978, PIA was continuously placed on various 10 Best Airlines of the World lists.
PIA was also one the first airlines to introduce in-flight entertainment and also famous for having one of the widest varieties of dishes and alcoholic beverages on offer.
Today however, PIA is largely a bankrupt enterprise.
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A 1973 press ad of Karachi's Oasis nightclub. Oasis that was situated on what is now Awan-i-Saddar Road (then called Club Road), was one of most popular nightclubs in Karachi, along with Playboy (that was located right beside Oasis), The Excelsior (in Saddar), and The Horseshoe (on Shara-e-Faisal).
Women shown in the ad are belly dancers invited from Beirut and Istanbul.
Oasis closed down when nightclubs and alcohol (for Muslims), were banned in 1977. It was demolished in the 1985 and converted into a 'wedding garden.'
(Photo: Dawn newspaper, February, 1972).
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Female student supporters of the left-wing National Students Federation (NSF), seen here during the 1972 student union elections at the Karachi University.
(Photo: The Herald).
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Women at a New Year's party at Karachi's Hotel Metropole (1973).
Today half of the hotel is an office complex while the other half was converted into a 'wedding hall.'
(Photo: Daily News).
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The left-wing National Students Federation (NSF) holding a corner meeting at the Karachi University just before the 1973 student union elections. Behind the speaker is graffiti quoting Chinese communist leader, Mao Tse Tung.
(Photo: The Star).
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European 'Earthwalkers' in Islamabad, 1973. They had arrived in the Pakistan capital to raise awareness about environmental issues.
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A 1973 photo of men enjoying a sizzling dance performance at a 'kotha' in Karachi's infamous red light district on Napier Road.
Napier Road comprised one of the largest number of 'kothas' in the 1970s in Karachi, that mostly carted to the entertainment (and other) needs of lower-middle and working-class men.
(Photo: Daily Jang).
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A montage of headlines screaming about the expulsion of the Pakistani Ahmadis from the fold of Islam.
Also seen is the copy of the constitutional deliberations and clauses finalised by the country's National Assembly in 1974 that turned the Ahmadis into a minority faith separate from Islam in Pakistan.
The move was initiated by anti-Ahmadi agitation by Islamic parties who then pressurised the Z A. Bhutto regime to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslim.
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1974: Islamic scholar and founder of the Jamat-i-Islami, Abul Aala Maudidi, holding a press conference during which he explained his party's support for the government's move to declare the Ahmadis as non-Muslim.
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A 1974 picture of students relaxing outside the Arts Lobby at the Karachi University.
The Arts Lobby was a stronghold of leftist and liberal student groups, whereas students from the science departments largely supported rightist student parties such as the Islami Jamiat Taleba during student union elections.
(Photo: The Herald)
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A group of students hang-out for a smoke and a chat outside the main canteen of the Punjab University in Lahore (1973).
(Photo: The Herald).
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An article (published in the May 1974 issue of Pakistani magazine, The Herald) on one of Pakistan's most famous painters, Bashir Mirza.
Mirza remained a prolific painter in the 1960s and 1970s but stopped painting (as a protest) when the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Z A. Bhutto in July 1977.
Mirza only resumed painting after the demise of Ziaul Haq and return of democracy in Pakistan in 1988.
He passed away in 2000 due to liver failure.
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Hippie tourists enjoying themselves at a hut at one of Karachi's many beaches in 1973.
Karachi beaches were a favourite haunt of wandering hippies arriving in droves from western countries in the 1970s.
(Photo: The Star)
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European hippies relaxing outside a cheap food joint on Burns Road in Karachi.
The second image shows two more inside the room of a cheap hotel in Saddar, Karachi. Both pictures were taken in 1972.
(Photo: The Herald).
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A 1973 press ad of the United Bank of Pakistan (UBL). It was one of the largest private banks in the country but was nationalised by the Z A. Bhutto regime in 1972 that won the 1970 election (in West Pakistan) on a socialist manifesto.
Which is why modern socialist and pro-working-class imagery is used in this particular ad.
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Famous Pakistani painter, Jamil Naqsh, captured here working in his studios in Karachi in 1973.
Naqsh's paintings remain to be one of the most expensive buys.
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A group of friends pose outside their class at the Karachi University in 1973.
(Photo: The Herald)
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Various leaders of the Muslim world gather inside Lahore's historic Badhshahi Mosque to say the evening prayers.
The picture was taken during the 1974 Islamic Summit organised by the government of Z A. Bhutto in Lahore and in which dozens of heads of state of Muslim countries took part.
Bhutto wanted to use the occasion to open a third front in the Cold War dominated by the US-led West and the Soviet-led communist bloc.
Bhutto also explained the summit as an expression of his regime's idea of 'progressive Muslim democracy' and 'Islamic Socialism' – even though most of the attendees were either monarchs or dictators.
Seen in the picture are PLO chief, Yasser Arafat (in dark glasses), Z A. Bhutto (in a Jinnah cap), Libyan leader Colonel Qadhafi, and Saudi monarch, Shah Faisal.
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A 1974 magazine feature on 1970s' pop icon, 'Maulana Hippie.' His real name was M. Hussain Talpur and he hailed from the Sindh province.
His interest in adorning outrageous 'hippie attire,' and his carefree demeanour earned him the name Maulana Hippie – a name that was also enacted to mock his more religious detractors.
Talpur also ventured into film production but was not very successful and by the late 1970s he was history.
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Libyan leader Colonel Qadhafi waving to an enthusiastic crowd during the 1974 Islamic Summit in Lahore.
It was this speech given on the grounds of Lahore Stadium after which the stadium's name was changed to Gaddafi Stadium.
(Photo: Daily Jang)
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A 1973 photo of fiery poetess and writer, Fahmida Riaz, lighting a cigarette during a poetry recital in Lahore.
After the 1977 military take-over, Riaz was harassed by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship.
She finally escaped to India with her husband and stayed there in exile till Zia's demise in 1988.
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Video grab of Pakistani cricket fans enjoying beer at the first Test match during Pakistan cricket team's 1974 tour of England.
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American tourists enjoying a ride on a tonga in Rawalpindi in 1975.
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A 1974 press ad of Red & White cigarettes.
In the 1970s Pakistani cigarette brands had started to target middle-class women smokers, a practice that was discontinued (on the instructions of the government) by the government after 1976.
Cigarette advertising was totally banned from TV, radio and the print media in Pakistan in the early 2000s.
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A 1975 photo of a hash (cannabis) shop in Kohat. Various such shops sprang up to mostly cater to the rising number of Western hippie tourists who would travel by road from Turkey through Iran and then enter Pakistan from Afghanistan.
The government tolerated such shops as long as they were not offering harder drugs like heroin on the menu.
In fact heroin was a rarity in Pakistan till 1980 when Pakistan's involvement in the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan triggered the arrival of a flood of guns and heroin into Pakistan from Afghanistan.
In 1979 there was only one reported case of heroin addiction in the country. By 1985 Pakistan became the country with the second largest number of heroin addicts.
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German archaeologists at the ancient ruins of Taxila in Pakistan in 1976.
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Pakistani boxer Jan Muhammad Baloch, seen here with former Governor of Punjab, Mustafa Khar (left) in 1975.
The picture was taken when Baloch, who had already won a gold medal in the 1970 Asian Games in South Korea and represented Pakistan at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was honoured by the government when he won a gold medal at the RCD Boxing Championship held in 1975 in Istanbul, Turkey.
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A 1975 poster highlighting Pakistan's Baloch, Sindhi, Pashtun and Punjabi folk singers.
The Pakistan government in the 1970s aggressively promoted the distinct cultures of Pakistan's various ethnicities due to which folk music became a popular part of the programming on state-owned television and radio.
This particular poster was printed to advertise the featured artistes' performance during the 1975 International Folk Music Festival in Washington DC.
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A 1976 photo of the award ceremony of the Pakistan Open squash tournament which was won by Qamar Zaman.
This was the beginning of Pakistan's long dominance of world squash (that lasted for almost 15 years – mainly on the shoulders of Jehangir Khan and Jansher Khan).
By 1976 most of the Pakistani players seen in the photo were already placed in the top-ten rankings of international squash, especially the four seen in the picture (from left): Mohibullah Khan, Gogi Allauddin, Torkam Khan (Jehangir Khan's elder brother who tragically died at the young age of 21), and Qamar Zaman (seen here standing in front of the trophy).
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A photo of one of the 1970s most popular celebrity couple, Saira Kazmi and Rahat Kazmi.
Both were TV actors, even though Rahat did act in a few films as well, and for a while was hailed as 'Pakistan's answer to Amitabh Bachan.'
He continued to appear on TV and on stage throughout the 1980s, whereas Saira went on to become a highly respected TV director.
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A special stamp issued by the government of Pakistan in 1976 to mark the centenary of the 1776 American Revolution.
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The Pakistan cricket team on its way to win its first ever Test against Australia in Australia in 1976.
Many believe this was the point from where the Pakistan team began to be taken seriously as a Test side.
Up against a strong Australian squad and on fast pitches, Pakistan drew the first Test, lost the second but came back to win the third game and draw the series 1-1.
Pakistan's victory was set-up by Pakistan's fast bowling pair of Imran Khan who took 12 wickets in the match, and Sarfraz Nawaz.
Seen in the picture (from left): Sadiq Muhammad, Wasim Bari, Mushtaq Muhammad, Imran Khan and Rodney Marsh.
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Another image of the third Test of the Pakistan-Australia series in 1976.
Skipper Mushtaq Muhammad is seen arguing with the Australian umpire who had warned Imran Khan for bowling bouncers at Dennis Lillie.
Also in the picture are twelfth man Wasim Raja and behind the umpire, a fuming Imran Khan.
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Nasir Zaidi, the first journalist to be mercilessly flogged in public by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in 1978.
General Zia had toppled the democratically-elected regime of Z A. Bhutto in July 1977, promising a new order based on 'Islamic laws.'
Between 1978 and 1982, dozens of journalists and political activists were flogged for opposing the dictatorship.
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The February 1978 cover of The Herald. The issue contained a detailed report and feature on various draconian laws imposed by the Zia dictatorship in the name of Islam.
Though imposed to 'Islamise the society,' they ended up creating deadly fissures between various Muslim sects in the country.
Also, if one compares the crime data and that of alcohol and drug addiction of the 1947-77 period with that of the 1978-2005 period, crime rose three-fold and there was almost a ten-fold increase in drug addiction.
Incidents of rape, terrorism and corruption too rose dramatically.
Such were the 'laws' and doings of the dictatorship that Pakistan is still struggling to recover from the madness that they unleashed.
Best Regards, ?
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Afzal Rahim
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Nature is our gift, so think before printing this e-mail
"Helping hands are always better than Praying lips."
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