This question is for some guppies who were around in those times (ehsan bhai and maybe some other guppies), and can perhaps tell us more, in a way that is not seen in books or articles, as to how life in Pakistan was like back in those days, for an average middleclass family? What were the activities back then, how did you guys keep yourselves entertained considering in the last 10-15 years SO much has changed so rapidly, so there has to be a stark difference. How did you guys see new developments, considering alot of inventions came about or became popular back then. I always hear stories that my mom told when they got their first colored television? How was the economy like in simple every day terms? Did you just go out and buy whatever you wanted from shops, everything was readily available? There are stories about how once in the Ayub era sugar was short, and the prices sky rocketted. Then they had sugar selling everywhere even on ‘rehris/carts’, and police wallaz walking around to make sure no one was overcharging people.
So anyone who has experienced that era, please do share your valuable experience here, alot of us are keep to know more about it, from people other than our own parents and uncles and aunts…
Well about entertainment! Way back in early 70's! My father and mother took all five of us (4 brothers and one sister) to watch the new moive - Road to Swat - in a cinema in Nazimabad! Guys it was so crowdy over there! The makrani guards were on duty to get the people straight in queue!
from what I hear from my uncles, pakistan was very liberal in the 60s. You did not have close to this much religious tensions and group baazi. many tourists came to teh country, some hippies lookign for drugs etc, but tourism was quite high then.
I have only seen pakistan in the zia era and afterwards so am just as interested in finding out how things were like.
Second most of you are not going to believe me but its true that.
Pakistan made rapid progress in first few years(I think till before ayub khan's time).
We helped 3 african country run their air lines.
South korea studied/implemented pakistan's 5 year plans.
Our bureaucracy was doing a great job making relation with west.
If things had the remaind same back then, then today we(pakistanis) could have more thing to be proud of theh pak army/cricket team.
Things I have seen.
one thing from late 70s living in faisal abad.
when my father use to come home we were able to listen our car horn from 3 streets away.
Its not posible today. Back in those(late 70) days there were far less cars on streets then now.
there was only one ice ceream "polka" availabe in 3 flavours. Then they(polka) came up with this brilliant idea of mix flavor. So they put to different color ice cream in one cup like this **(||).
**3- sweet shops were not as neat. we use to buy sweets bring them home "FRY" them to kill germs then eat it.
Then Tose sweet shops became very clean and neat with big glasses every where then My father allowed us to eat sweet with out "frying"
I can only go only as early as low-mid 70s. I don't know about the purchasing power of families, but living in outside Karachi which is now almost center (Gulshan Iqbal) life was slow and little tough. Elders of family would walk 1.5-2 miles (to water pump, FB Area) for groceries. One of our neighbors got a car sometime later then they shared the car for weekly/monthly 'sabzi-mandi shopping'. Nowadays the other neighbor is busy in their own lives to share anything at all besides food sharings in Ramadan/Moharram.
Money has become the unspoken religion more-so now. As indicated by others, society was going towards liberalism though there were more ladies in 'burqa' those days but they were going down in numbers. But thanks to Russia/Afghan jihad things are very different now, society is polarised (and growing).
Sixeties we had East Pakistan, then society had Bengali intellectuals, artists and politicians playing their role. Sadly for Pakistan, that link was broken in 1971, since then things have gone in one direction i.e., down.
Karachi was very liberal, used to be called the city of lights, evening paper used to carry ads for nightclubs, bars were open, discoteques were crowded, religion was a personal matter. Corruption was unacceptable by society in the sense if a particular gentleman was exposed for bribery or corruption then society wud ostracize him, not like nowadays when it is considered to be a part of life.
In Lahore, girls wud go to school on bicycles, that was such a beautiful sight then lahore was green and clean.
Even then, the poor hari, mazara, mazdoor (labourer) did not have much but then they had grace and integrity. People in general had less but expectations were also low, unlike today in the consumer driven economy.
Thanks for the comments everyone, hope to see more posts though :)
Captain1, yes, one of the points where some permanent changes occured was infact the Afghan-Soviet war. Everyone says pakistan lost the simple innocence in the people and their lifestyles after that war took its toll on our country.
Pakistan was developing like nything in 60's and 70's.I have heared that T.V's were very common in Pakistan in 70's itself before it had become popular in India.P T V used to display the images of pak armys surrender in Bengladesh ,and that was a tactic by Bhutto to avert a coup.
I have read NFP's take on the sixties and seventies, and considering his bias towards PPP, were all the things that he says like that in that era?
Things must have been bad, perhaps ethnically like pashtunistan, some baloch nationalists and then the big Bengali nationalism, for 1971 to happen. I think that 1971 brought the country together in a sense that w. Pakistan was one unit while e. Pakistan was the alien.
I have seen the Pakistan of 80's on-wards, which was the period when Zia started the Islamization of the country. I saw some after affects in late 80's and 90's in the form of sectarianism in Punjab, culminating in Jehadi groups in the 90's. Before 79 Pakistan was much open and liberal.
I was not even born in the years you're talking about but can share some stuff as told by my elders that in those times speaking specifically of Karachi the people were simple, hardworking, friendly and respectful. Friends and neighbors were like family that they didn't had to ask for permission when entering in the house and that's the trust people had on each other in those days. Youngsters had respect for elders and women. No materialistic lifestyle and at last Pakistanis were united on the basic issues. I wish I can go back and experience that time.
Less crime
Hardly any murder
House doors remained opened during day time
Chicken was a rare commodity - dearer than chota
Participation in funeral and other things was very high
Things were off course much much cheaper and affordable by everyone (although my dadi always complained about high prices as compare to her times).
Less crime
Hardly any murder
House doors remained opened during day time
Chicken was a rare commodity - dearer than chota
Participation in funeral and other things was very high
Things were off course much much cheaper and affordable by everyone (although my dadi always complained about high prices as compare to her times).
Well about entertainment! Way back in early 70's! My father and mother took all five of us (4 brothers and one sister) to watch the new moive - Road to Swat - in a cinema in Nazimabad! Guys it was so crowdy over there! The makrani guards were on duty to get the people straight in queue!
Time flies, your post in the same thread 7 years back. :)
That was the times of racism and hatred against Bengali of East Pakistan. They were looked down as slaves and low lying bhikari dependent on so called rich West Pakistanis. That was the times when their rights of living were violated by West Pakistani rulers. That was the time when Quaid's Pakistan broke into two and major part of the country separated. Former West Pakistan and now Pakistan went on down turn spiral never recovered since then. Not so good memories. Sorry.
From what I understand from mid 50s to until about 65s war with India things were looking really promising for Pakistan. After the war everything went straight down. First breakup of the country and then ZAB and latter Zia pretty much destroyed the country beyond recognition.
From what I understand from mid 50s to until about 65s war with India things were looking really promising for Pakistan. After the war everything went straight down. First breakup of the country and then ZAB and latter Zia pretty much destroyed the country beyond recognition.
It was a classical example of civilian hawks, as bhutto was much more in favor of fighting with india than ayub was in 1965. Bhutto even use the tashkent conference with some lies mixed in to cause trouble for Ayub in his final years.
Perhaps Ayub knew, but as far as military goes specifically PAF, I have read that Pakistan was supposed to get an upgrade to F-4s and F-5s around 65-66 which got pretty much written off after the 1965 war. US thinking was that they didn't arm Pakistan so it could fight india, but I still don't get why we still were flying american planes and even bought sabres in '69 after the saanp behavior of US in the '65 war. We had rather good choices in mig-15s and 17s from china on cheap credit.
As far as bengalis go, I think the west and east wing rivalry sort of united pakistanis in the west and the east. I am not talking about ethnic nationalists as they would be giddy to cause trouble for Pakistan. In fact, it was one of the best times for east pakistan civil service and I think that if Pakistan somehow had turned the rivalry to a positive competition, then it could be like the rivalry between east or west coast or the south as it is in the US right now.
I also do share the wonder about the life in the past. Our history books say only about the rulers and nothing about the ruled. Although, there is a felt need about something being documented about the life of people in Pakistan expressed here and there.
The way my father and uncles describe the urban life in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi is fantastic. The respect and trustful behavior of people. The way ‘mehmans’ (tourists) were treated. The greenery, planned bazaars and residential areas in the cities. The long walks people of the rural areas have to make to markets. It’s sounds all magic.
There is a page on facebook named Archive 150 [Facebook], which showcases photos from the subcontinent, mostly focusing on life in Pakistan, dating as back as 1800s. I love that page, it’s like time travelling back to that wonderful time.
What really wonders me is that how much more we will deteriorate before catching up?