पुराना पाकिस्तान

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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

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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.

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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.

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A young Pakistani woman sitting on her motorbike in the Soldier Bazzar area of Karachi (1969).

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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.