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A look at some of the historic moments that have shaped Pakistan
NADEEM F. PARACHA — UPDATED about an hour ago
The influx
Founder of Pakistan, M. A. Jinnah, patiently listening to the complaints of a refugee in Karachi in late 1947. Millions of Muslim refugees poured into the newly created Pakistan from various Indian cities, towns and villages after the partition of India in August 1947. The new country was overwhelmed by the influx.
A majority of the refugees were settled in hastily constructed refugee camps in Sindh and Punjab. By the 1960s, many of the refugee camps (especially in Karachi) had turned into shanty towns with high levels of crime, unemployment and alcoholism. In the 1970s, many of these shanty towns were regularised and provided basic amenities such as water and electricity. They remain to be one of the most congested areas of the city.
The last snap, October 1951
Picture: Abdul Rasheed Muhjal
This picture of Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was taken 20 minutes before he was assassinated. Khan was walking towards the podium in Rawalpindi to make a speech when he was shot dead by a radical Pakhtun nationalist, Saeed Akbar. Akbar was shot dead on the spot by the police.
Many theories suggest that Akbar was a hitman who was hired by anti-Liaquat elements within the government and the bureaucracy. However, these claims have never been conclusively substantiated.
The first fissure
A 1952 wall mural in Dhaka, East Pakistan, demanding Bengali to be declared a national language of Pakistan. Violent riots broke out in East Pakistan in 1952, when Bengali politicians and intellectuals demanded that Bengali be made a national language. Many protesters were killed in the rioting. Bengali was finally given the status of a national language (along with Urdu) in 1954.
The anthem man
Author of Pakistani national anthem Hafeez Jalandhri with his wife and daughters in 1954. Jalandhri had penned the anthem in 1952. In 1954, it was officially adopted by the state of Pakistan.
The country got its national anthem almost seven years after its creation. In 1948, when then Indonesian President Sukharno became the first foreign head of state to visit Pakistan, the country had no anthem of its own to play.
The government put pressure on an ‘anthem committee’ to come up with an anthem before the Shah of Iran’s visit in 1950. The committee couldn’t agree on the words, but it did select a tune composed by Ahmad G. Chagla. So between 1950 and 1954, the Pakistani anthem existed as a piece of music only.
Finally, the words that Jalandhri had written in 1952 were approved in 1954 and the complete anthem was played for the first time on radio. The lyrics of the anthem are all in Persian, with only one Urdu word (‘ka’).
The last tribe
Picture: My Historical Pakistan
A synagogue in Karachi in 1957. The board reads (in Urdu, Bengali and Hebrew) ‘Pakistani Israelite Mosque’. There were about 1300 Jews residing in Karachi in the 1950s. This particular synagogue was built in 1893, 54 years before Pakistan’s creation.
It was renovated in 1936 by Karachi’s first Jew councilor, Abraham Reuben. The last Jewish family of Karachi is said to have migrated (to Israel) in the late 1960s. The synagogue lasted as a heritage building till 1988. It was finally torn down and a shopping plaza was constructed on the site.
Show of might
Picture: LIFE
Military police emerge on the streets of Karachi during the imposition of the country’s first Martial Law in 1958. The Martial Law was imposed by President Iskandar Mirza with the help of then army chief Ayub Khan.
Both accused the politicians and the bureaucracy of indulging in corruption and using the 1956 Constitution to ‘peddle Islam for political gains’. They suspended the Constitution and changed the country’s name from Islamic Republic of Pakistan to simply, the Republic of Pakistan.
Within months, Ayub deposed Mirza as well. In 1959, he became President.
Small beginnings
This photograph shows Pakistan’s first television station. Television arrived in Pakistan in 1964. The country’s first TV station was housed in a small bungalow-type building in Lahore. It was set up with the help of technicians and trainers from Japan’s Nippon Corporation.
Nippon and a Pakistani industrialist, Syed Wajid Ali, held the majority shares of the project. The channel was called Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) and pilot projects were launched in Karachi and Rawalpindi as well.
PTV was largely a private enterprise till 1972. In January 1972, it was completely nationalised by the Z.A. Bhutto government and became an entirely state-backed entity. PTV stations in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi were greatly expanded and in 1974 new ones were built in Quetta and Peshawar. Today, PTV, though still state-owned, has over six channels.
PIA takes off
Picture: Mehmood Juma
This photograph shows air-hostesses of Pakistani airline, PIA, on the runway of the Karachi airport in 1965. Pakistan did not have a national airline until 1955. In 1955, Orient Airways, a private airline, was nationalised and renamed Pakistan International Airline (PIA).
PIA became one of the fastest-growing airlines in the 1960s. It was also the first airline to introduce inflight entertainment. The uniforms of PIA stewardesses and air-hostesses were designed by famous French fashion designer, Pierre Cardin.
PIA continued to perform well and hover in the list of top 5 international airlines across the 1970s. Its fortunes began to decline from late 1980s onward. By the mid-2000s, it was nearly bankrupt.
NADEEM F. PARACHA — UPDATED about an hour ago
The influx
Founder of Pakistan, M. A. Jinnah, patiently listening to the complaints of a refugee in Karachi in late 1947. Millions of Muslim refugees poured into the newly created Pakistan from various Indian cities, towns and villages after the partition of India in August 1947. The new country was overwhelmed by the influx.
A majority of the refugees were settled in hastily constructed refugee camps in Sindh and Punjab. By the 1960s, many of the refugee camps (especially in Karachi) had turned into shanty towns with high levels of crime, unemployment and alcoholism. In the 1970s, many of these shanty towns were regularised and provided basic amenities such as water and electricity. They remain to be one of the most congested areas of the city.
The last snap, October 1951
Picture: Abdul Rasheed Muhjal
This picture of Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was taken 20 minutes before he was assassinated. Khan was walking towards the podium in Rawalpindi to make a speech when he was shot dead by a radical Pakhtun nationalist, Saeed Akbar. Akbar was shot dead on the spot by the police.
Many theories suggest that Akbar was a hitman who was hired by anti-Liaquat elements within the government and the bureaucracy. However, these claims have never been conclusively substantiated.
The first fissure
A 1952 wall mural in Dhaka, East Pakistan, demanding Bengali to be declared a national language of Pakistan. Violent riots broke out in East Pakistan in 1952, when Bengali politicians and intellectuals demanded that Bengali be made a national language. Many protesters were killed in the rioting. Bengali was finally given the status of a national language (along with Urdu) in 1954.
The anthem man
Author of Pakistani national anthem Hafeez Jalandhri with his wife and daughters in 1954. Jalandhri had penned the anthem in 1952. In 1954, it was officially adopted by the state of Pakistan.
The country got its national anthem almost seven years after its creation. In 1948, when then Indonesian President Sukharno became the first foreign head of state to visit Pakistan, the country had no anthem of its own to play.
The government put pressure on an ‘anthem committee’ to come up with an anthem before the Shah of Iran’s visit in 1950. The committee couldn’t agree on the words, but it did select a tune composed by Ahmad G. Chagla. So between 1950 and 1954, the Pakistani anthem existed as a piece of music only.
Finally, the words that Jalandhri had written in 1952 were approved in 1954 and the complete anthem was played for the first time on radio. The lyrics of the anthem are all in Persian, with only one Urdu word (‘ka’).
The last tribe
Picture: My Historical Pakistan
A synagogue in Karachi in 1957. The board reads (in Urdu, Bengali and Hebrew) ‘Pakistani Israelite Mosque’. There were about 1300 Jews residing in Karachi in the 1950s. This particular synagogue was built in 1893, 54 years before Pakistan’s creation.
It was renovated in 1936 by Karachi’s first Jew councilor, Abraham Reuben. The last Jewish family of Karachi is said to have migrated (to Israel) in the late 1960s. The synagogue lasted as a heritage building till 1988. It was finally torn down and a shopping plaza was constructed on the site.
Show of might
Picture: LIFE
Military police emerge on the streets of Karachi during the imposition of the country’s first Martial Law in 1958. The Martial Law was imposed by President Iskandar Mirza with the help of then army chief Ayub Khan.
Both accused the politicians and the bureaucracy of indulging in corruption and using the 1956 Constitution to ‘peddle Islam for political gains’. They suspended the Constitution and changed the country’s name from Islamic Republic of Pakistan to simply, the Republic of Pakistan.
Within months, Ayub deposed Mirza as well. In 1959, he became President.
Small beginnings
This photograph shows Pakistan’s first television station. Television arrived in Pakistan in 1964. The country’s first TV station was housed in a small bungalow-type building in Lahore. It was set up with the help of technicians and trainers from Japan’s Nippon Corporation.
Nippon and a Pakistani industrialist, Syed Wajid Ali, held the majority shares of the project. The channel was called Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) and pilot projects were launched in Karachi and Rawalpindi as well.
PTV was largely a private enterprise till 1972. In January 1972, it was completely nationalised by the Z.A. Bhutto government and became an entirely state-backed entity. PTV stations in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi were greatly expanded and in 1974 new ones were built in Quetta and Peshawar. Today, PTV, though still state-owned, has over six channels.
PIA takes off
Picture: Mehmood Juma
This photograph shows air-hostesses of Pakistani airline, PIA, on the runway of the Karachi airport in 1965. Pakistan did not have a national airline until 1955. In 1955, Orient Airways, a private airline, was nationalised and renamed Pakistan International Airline (PIA).
PIA became one of the fastest-growing airlines in the 1960s. It was also the first airline to introduce inflight entertainment. The uniforms of PIA stewardesses and air-hostesses were designed by famous French fashion designer, Pierre Cardin.
PIA continued to perform well and hover in the list of top 5 international airlines across the 1970s. Its fortunes began to decline from late 1980s onward. By the mid-2000s, it was nearly bankrupt.
