Also Pakistan

[Kompromat]

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!

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.

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 **** (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.

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.

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

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.

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.’

 

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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.

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.

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!

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.

 

[Kompromat]

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.

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 shoots a scene at Lahore's Railway Station.

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.

 

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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.

 

[SamranAli]

beautiful. Share other parts too.

 

[Kompromat]

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.

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.

Two hippie tourists at a tea shop in Sibi, Balochistan, in 1972.

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.

 

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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.

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.

A couple swings into action at a New Year’s party at a nightclub at Karachi’s Hotel Metropole (1957).

A newspaper clipping (from Pakistan’s daily, ‘Morning News&#8217 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).

Western tourists sunbathing on a Karachi beach (early 1960s).

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

A 1975 poster showing some of Pakistan’s most popular Sindhi, Baloch, Pushtun and Punjabi folk performers. The poster was printed in the United States where these performers went to perform at the ‘American Folklife Concert’ in Washington DC.

Indigenous Pakistani folk culture and music were aggressively patronised by the populist government of Z A. Bhutto. Some analysts suggest that this was at least one part of his regime’s strategy to co-opt nationalist sentiments simmering among Sindhi, Baloch and Pushtun nationalists.

DAWN headline about the military take-over of General Ziaul Haq (July 1977). The elections did not take place ‘next October.’ Zia ruled for 11 years. Pakistan was never the same again.

 

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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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

A stamp celebrating Pakistan’s victory in the 1971 Hockey World Cup held in Barcelona, Spain.

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.

A 1974 photograph showing the inside of a ‘hashish house’ in Quetta.

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.

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.’

1974 T Shirt

Tourism in Pakistan grew two-fold in the 1970s. This special stamp was issued
by the country’s Ministry of Tourism in 1975.

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)

A European tourist family outside a rest house in Murree, 1974.

ourists enjoy a buggy ride outside Peshawar’s Hotel Intercontinental (1975).

Western tourists jam with a Pakistani tabla player in Karachi (1975).

A 1978 French release of an album by famous Pakistani Qawali group, the Sabri Brothers.

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.

Altaf Gohar and Khalid Hassan with Noble Prize winning Pakistani scientist, Dr. Abdus Salam (centre) in the late 1970s.

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).

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.

An American Christian evangelist addressing Pakistani Christians in a village near Abbotabad in 1977

Pakistani star batsman, Javed Miandad, smashes the stumps after being given
out LBW in a test match against India (1979).

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.

Source: DAWN

 

[livingdead]

The past does look nicer than present. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Android]

Looks like pakistan was quite different before zia ul haq's reign