पुराना पाकिस्तान

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American Embassy building under construction in Karachi, 1957.

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.

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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.

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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.

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A vibrant 1973 poster prepared and printed by the Pakistan Ministry of Tourism to attract tourism to the city of Lahore.

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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.

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A 1967 tourism poster for Karachi (printed by American airline Pan Am and used in Europe and the US).

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.