Category Archives: Pakistan

History and Nostalgia: Pakistan’s “golden era”

02/08/2017 Pippa 3 Comments

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In recent years there have been a number of articles which have explored the visual representation of a so-called “golden-era” of Pakistan. Nadeem F. Paracha[i] has been at the forefront with his attempts to show a Pakistan which many would struggle to recognise today. Just recently there was an article by Ally Adnan in The Friday Times which explored the history of Eid greeting cards via the writer’s own experiences;[ii] a more compelling and detailed account of vintage Eid greeting cards and their origin has been done by Yousuf Saeed.[iii] And then there was a short pictorial essay by Amna Khawar[iv] on vintage travel posters capturing the romantic side of Pakistani tourism. Many of these images relate to the 1950s and 1960s.

As a historian I have been thinking about these articles along with my own research, which has been exploring women’s representation in public spaces in the formative years of Pakistani history, especially the women who worked for PIA. I have been fascinated with the role of nostalgia and how this has been shaping the popular imagination in recent years. The pictures collectively evoke a period that is seen as being more liberal, tolerant of ‘others’, modern, sassy, energetic, optimistic and laced with a sprinkling of the colonial hangover. An early example of this is an ad by PIA from 1960, with the tag line “Move with the times.”[v] PIA was one of the leading brand ambassadors for Pakistan and combined with the emergence of the jet-age there was a growing tourism industry that is virtually non-existent now.

More broadly, and used a source, these images also depict the changes that have taken place in Pakistan and how these are reflected in society. While much has been written about the history of Pakistan, this has largely tended to focus on the political issues, ideological debates, economic concerns or the political leadership. Rarely do we get to glimpse history through the prism of the societal and cultural changes taking place. The ordinary lived experiences of people, especially women, rarely get coverage in the official histories, which are more concerned with the high politics. Yet, if we start to scratch around the pages of old newspapers, magazines, folklore, literature, and personal narratives, there are many untold stories waiting to be explored and unearthed.

So why this fascination now? There are a number of factors converging at the moment which are in many ways compelling commentators and writers to re-visit this history. The political changes and gradual encroachment of religious conservatism in Pakistan makes us want to explore alternative national histories. This is almost a reaction to the current political climate, which has rendered many helpless in their attempt to preserve a more secular and liberal vision of Pakistan, which was seen to be more prevalent in the early years of Pakistani history.

The distortion of history, both intentionally and now as a default position because the effect has been so pervasive, has helped to re-write how we understand and analyse the early history of Pakistan. This has been a gradual process but I would argue something that started especially after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. The reaction, to the split was an attempt to force greater unity amongst the people and consequently more religiosity was prescribed to keep the nation from further fragmentation. This rather dogmatic approach meant a more exclusive understanding of Pakistani identity which frowned upon anything that deviated from the acceptable norms of the state-view.

The 1970s were also importantly a watershed for Pakistan because a number of factors converge together. The power of the petro-dollars and Saudi Arabia, the state-sponsored Islamisation during the Zia period, the rise of the pan-Islamic identity, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, American interests in Pakistan, coupled with the break-up of Pakistan at the start of the decade result in a nation that was seeking a new identity. The response was almost an attempt to finally break away from the shackles of imperialism and create a new post-colonial nation. The replacement however, has seen this being replaced by a different form of colonialism, one that relies heavily on Saudi Arabia and ironically a dichotomous relationship with America.

Pakistan has thus undergone vast amount of change during the past forty years. Within all this change, which has been confused and contradictory at times, there is sentimentality and nostalgia for a period that seems so distant. The era of the 1950s and 1960s when, women were optimistic of their role in the nation-building project, and were visible in public spaces; economic prosperity offered hope for the future; a young nation looking and embracing internationalism; and the buoyancy and optimism of independence still reverberating. The reality may have been different but memory is quite subjective and revisionist. But sixty-eight years on, the optimism and expectations have somewhat dampened and have been replaced by cynicism, lack of faith in the state apparatus to deliver the basic needs for its people and an religious-ideological schism which is pulling people apart.

So it is within this context that increasingly there is a re-evaluation of trying to understand that period. It is in a sense a desperate attempt to hang on to a past that will be familiar to many but more radically it offers a space in which a nation is still trying to define itself. These cultural and social spaces are powerful, just as the margins are; so within these confines there is an opportunity to construct and revise a history that has become so distorted. Indeed History is never static; it is continually changing and is shaped by the present. Similarly, memory is equally revisionist and it is the fragility of the present, which compels many to seek answers in the past and contextualise this history in the present. By exploring these alternative spaces and histories of our collective past, we can perhaps better understand and hope for a more compassionate future.

[i] Nadeem F. Paracha, ‘Also Pakistan’, Dawn 9 Feb 2012. http://www.dawn.com/news/694239/also-pakistan-2

[ii] Ally Adnan, ‘I Love Eid Cards’, The Friday Times, 25 July 2014. http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/i-love-eid-cards/

[iii] Yousuf Saeed, ‘Cross-cultural Image Exchange in Muslim South Asia’, Tasveer Ghar: A Digital Archive of South Asian Popular Visual Culture. http://tasveergharindia.net/cmsdesk/essay/117/

[iv] Amna Khawar, ‘Vintage Travel Poster Capture Pakistan’s Romantic Side’, Medium, 14 August 2014. https://medium.com/@amnak/vintage-travel-posters-capture-pakistans-romantic-side-95b5b8090909

[v] The advert appeared in the magazine, Pakistan Quarterly, Spring 1960.

A version of this article appeared in The News on Sunday [link: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/recovering-history-through-nostalgia/#.WJsT7BBpZE5%5D

Pakistan, Short Essays

PIA, the jet-age and working women

01/30/2017 Pippa Leave a comment

pia-good-daughters — The Pakistan Times, 11 September 1966

The coming of the jet-age: women, advertising and tourism in Pakistan

Appearing on 23 September, 1956, The Pakistan Times article, ‘About women travellers’ is a commentary by their woman correspondent on travelling in the jet-age and ends optimistically with, ‘Times are changing rapidly. Gone are the days when women could not move unchaperoned, for now they travel the globe, and although there are no undiscovered continents, they still travel paths yet untrodden by women.’ This article appeared at a time when Orient Airways was merging with Pakistan International Airlines Corporation to form what is now more popularly known as PIA.

Shortly after PIA’s establishment, in 1959 the new managing director, Air Commodore Nur Khan, took over; he was considered to be a dynamic and forward-thinking visionary and well placed to take advantage of the coming jet-age that would revolutionise air travel. By its own admission, PIA considered his tenure as the ‘golden years of PIA’. Enver Jamall, former chairman and chief executive of PIA, highlights the competition PIA had with Air-India, which had already placed orders for Boeing 707s to be delivered in 1960. There was much determination within PIA to be the first airline in the East to operate jets and so an agreement was reached with Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) for the lease of one of its Boeing 707s. This would operate on the London-Karachi-Dacca route with an extension to New York once a week. The flights began in March 1960, giving PIA the coveted prize and the route was a financial and operational success.[1]

Writing on the tenth anniversary since independence the General Manager of PIA, Zafarul Ashan, notes how the bold concept of air transport helped Pakistan maintain national unity. He goes further and adds that ‘In air transportation, more than in anything else, the Pakistanis discovered their true genius, striving as a modern nation to achieve a happy blend of the values of their rich cultural past with values and concepts of this age.’ Ultimately, PIA’s impact extended beyond merely connecting the two wings. Apart from the trade between the two wings, the ‘low cost air transport within Pakistan started a revolution in the travel habits’ of people and ‘it opened up new venues of business and recreation.’[2] With the jet age, there was simultaneously an emerging middle class with more disposable income both globally and within in Pakistan. So while the majority of the early travellers were wealthy businessmen, the affluent middle class was the way ahead for expansion. Nur Khan recognised this opportunity for growth and expansion.

PIA also made some interesting strategic moves. In 1955, the first flight ‘to the glittering, glitzy capital city of London, via Cairo and Rome’ started. There was some criticism of this from the public who regarded other projects as more urgent for a developing country like Pakistan but this was rebuked with the substantial foreign exchange earned through the international service. Indeed the foreign tourist market was crucial to the business model in the early days of PIA, it is only by the 1970s that the shift towards catering for the diaspora market takes place. Travelling abroad was an aspirational luxury for an elite group of Pakistanis but PIA in its early years was also tapping into the lucrative international tourist market. This is certainly evident in the early marketing and advertising by PIA, they were appealing to the foreign market and indeed the airline was successfully establishing a reputation for excellent services and was increasingly capturing the international market.[3] It was consistently considered as one of the best airlines in the East and was increasingly competing with likes of Pan Am and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for foreign tourists coming to Pakistan.

What is often over-looked in this story is the role of the women in promoting the PIA brand. PIA often used traditional notions of womanhood in their ads to attract more girls into the profession. We can see this from the text below taken from a 1966 tagline:

‘Pakistani girls make good daughter – no wonder they make such good Hostesses’

The advert depicts a young, elegant lady playing with a child on board a flight and continues, ‘Affection for the young, respect for elders and the desire to be helpful, hospitable and gracious…make-up of every daughter of Pakistan.’ These attributes can easily be applied to any “good” daughter (and potential daughter-in-law). But instead of representing the home, PIA airhostesses were ‘Pakistan’s Ambassador in many countries abroad’ and often she would be the first point of contact that a foreign visitor would make with Pakistan.[4] While playing on some of the traditional roles of women, the advert is also breaking new ground by legitimising the role of the airhostess. It sends out a message that this is a “respectable” profession and thereby quelling any fears parents may have about their daughters wanting to join the profession. On the other hand, the use of glamorous young females in exotic locations, also promotes an image of Pakistan which modern, progressive, internationalist and welcoming. There is then a dual role in the marketing and branding of the advertising.

There is also a sense that this was an age of new discovery and opportunity, democratisation in the travel and adventure industry, no longer the preserve of wealthy elites. An ever-increasing number of people now had the opportunity to explore and venture into new areas and the newly created nation of Pakistan had many attractions. The Government of Pakistan was also keenly promoting tourism, as is evident in the promotional literature of the 1960s. Foreign travelogues and magazines like the National Geographic were similarly featuring Pakistan as a tourist destination. While Karachi was the hub of activity, it was the old Silk Route, Peshawar, Swat, Chitral, Gilgit and the Karakorum Highway that attracted the adventure tourists. Mack Millar was a flight instructor assisting PIA during its early days and notes. ‘Although PIA is a national airline and the Pakistani government was founded to give the Muslim people their won country, the airline, like the nation itself, shows a wonderful tolerance for people of other persuasion. Many of the pilots are of mixed lineage-Anglo-Indian and Portuguese-Goanese, for example-and many are Christians.’[5] The feeling is that this was a more tolerant age; it was more open to foreigners and ideas. Internally it presented opportunities for Pakistanis to be part of an international community. The social and political changes that have taken place in Pakistan in the past 40 years have polarised this landscape.

The advances made in air travel were crucial to the existence of having a nation state divided by 1100 miles of hostile land mass. Zafarul Ashan was only too aware of this, ‘Nothing could have been worse than isolation for the cultural development and the expansion of the economy of the two wings. Political equality demanded that East and West Pakistan should be brought very close to each other in terms of time.’[6] The timing for Pakistan’s existence as a nation-state is therefore crucial in that the airline industry was just beginning to take off during the 1940s and not long after, the jet-age would revolutionise air travel. But along with this, a number of other opportunities also opened up. Foreign travel increasingly filtered down to the classes and was no longer just an elite activity. Out of this emerged a tourist industry attracting people to visit Pakistan and a domestic market, based not just on travel between the wings of Pakistan but looking to travel and experience the world beyond Asia. It also fundamentally opened opportunities for women to work and explore the globe. In an age where women were restricted to largely working in “respectable” jobs like teaching or medicine, here PIA was making the idea of working in the airline industry and as an airline hostesses a respectable profession. This was ground-breaking for the age.

[1] ‘Birth of a Nation; Birth of an Airline: The History of PIA,’ Enver Jamall in The Putnam Aeronautical Review 1990.

[2] The Pakistan Times, ‘P.I.A. Plans for Increased Capacity’ by Zafarul Ashan, 14 Aug 1957.

[3] The Pakistan Times, Independence Supplement, ‘PIA is flying high’ 14 Aug 1960.

[4] The Pakistan Times, 11 Sep 1966.

[5] Ed Mack Miller, ‘Pakistan International Airlines Great People to Fly With’ Flying, March 1963

[6] The Pakistan Times, ‘P.I.A. Plans for Increased Capacity’ by Zafarul Ashan, 14 Aug 1957.

A version of this appeared in The News on Sunday [link: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/the-coming-of-the-jet-age/#.WI_D3JJOuHk%5D

Pakistan, Short Essays

The Afghani Burger

01/04/2017 Pippa Leave a comment

Since last year Pakistan has requested that an estimated two million Afghan refugees (no one really knows the true figure) in Pakistan should leave and return back “home”. This has caused enormous amount of chaos along the Pakistan-Afghan border, not to mention the huge amount of distress and uncertainty for the people themselves. In these times when Europe is mostly focused on the refugees crisis in its own borders, there is a tendency to overlook the fact the majority of the world’s refugees are in fact located largely in neighbouring countries from which they flee. According to the UNHCR figures the top five hosting countries are:

Turkey 2.5m

Pakistan 1.6m

Lebanon 1.1m

Iran 979,400

Ethiopia 736,100

Visit the UNCHR website for a quick overview of figures, they are quite illuminating: http://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a-glance.html

The Afghani refugees initially arrived in Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. They poured into Pakistan to seek sanctuary and most of them made new, but admittedly temporary, lives along the two provinces bordering Afghanistan. In the late 80s this figure was approximately 3.3 million, all located in refugee camps along Afghan-Pakistan border. A second wave of refugees poured into Pakistan following the US-led war in Afghanistan after 2001. By the end of 2001 the numbers rose up to approximately 5 million. By the end of 2012 there were however, almost 2 million Afghan nationals living in Pakistan largely in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan province but others were scattered across the country. Some of these people have been there for such a long time that this is the only home they have known. While they have legal refugee status in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan still considers them citizens of Afghanistan, even though many have subsequently been born in Pakistan. Large numbers of refugees have already been repatriated back to Afghanistan with the assistance of the UNHCR; their future is yet again uncertain.

Despite this many of them have made their lives in the “foreign” land that has become “home”. They carve out a living whichever way they can and the Afghani burger place is a just a small way in which they hang onto their identity. I first came across this when a colleague insisted that when one is in Islamabad an Afghani Burger is a must. Intrigued to find out more we visited a shabby looking place, the modern day dhaba. The place is quite small, unassuming and ordinarily I would have walked past it. The burger itself is not a burger; it is more of a wrap to be precise. The food is made on site and in front of your eyes to entice you. The contents of the wrap include a mix of different influences, chips (limp and apparently Afghani style), frankfurters (made with chicken or beef), salads, and an assortment of different sauces/chutneys – eastern influenced mint ones, the ubiquitous tomato sauce (with added spices) and some eastern spices thrown in too.

Read more about the Afghani burger phenomenon in Dawn: http://www.dawn.com/news/1130547

Motivating the Afghanis in Pakistan is essentially the instinctive need for survival and whilst the State (and Pakistani citizens) does not consider them citizens, it does not stop the success and popularity of the Afghani burger from spreading. Food is of course the easiest and most sublime ways in which people both retain their identity and also share it with those around; it starts to infuse the landscape until it is absorbed into the existing culture. The result is that the Afghani burger has given life and thrived in a stale, bureaucratic city to give it some character. The politics remain but no one questions the joy that food can bring to the people and places far away from “home”.

Pakistan, Short Essays

High Tea

11/24/2016 Pippa Leave a comment

I was rather excited by the prospect of being invited for High Tea at Faletti’s Hotel in Lahore. Admittedly it was a work-related event followed by High Tea. For all these years, I wondered how I managed to avoid having High Tea in the sub-continent, considering this old colonial legacy still lingers on in a reformatted and repackaged form of eating in between lunch and dinner. Moreover, it is often associated with ladies of leisure spending a lazy afternoon socialising and chatting away. What was more enticing for me was the concept of High Tea itself rather than the food because I suspected that being in Pakistan, the delicacies presented were not going to be light finger food. Indeed it was a buffet-style meal consisting of chicken drumsticks, chicken kebabs, channa (chickpeas), chicken sandwiches, cream cakes and of course tea. Although Pakistan produces some tea, it is in fact the third largest importer of tea in the world. Hugely popular in cities like Lahore, it is difficult to imagine a day with a cup of tea.

The English High Tea usually had some form of bread (sandwiches), vegetables, cheese, sometimes meat but always tea. It was considered an essential part of eighteenth and nineteenth century meal times, providing another opportunity for social gatherings amongst the upper classes. It was also easy to prepare in case their servants were not around. Thus, a practical solution for those late afternoon moments, when the evening meal was served around 8 pm. Today, High Tea is more popularly referred to as Afternoon Tea and is often marketed at the tourists (foreign or local) looking for that quintessential tea and scone moments in small “English” tea shops.

During the expansive years of British colonial rule, tea drinking became a must have beverage for the upper classes, a beverage which was too expensive for the working classes because of the heavy import taxes. By the nineteenth century, these taxes declined and of course, tea drinking starts to spread to become an essential part of our daily routine. Today the UK stands as fifth largest consumers of tea per capita. The demand for the commodity is what motivated the British to start tea production in India, where it was initially only consumed largely by Anglicised Indians. It was later during the 1920s, through extensive marketing by the Tea Board that the Indians start to consume tea. Today of course India is the largest producer of tea in the world, yet it only ranks 44^th in terms of consumption per capita.

For many us, a morning or afternoon is not complete without that cup of tea, a cheap simple drink which hides so many stories. It is amazing that tea, due to being so expensive, was often locked up and key was kept by the lady of the house. Now it is one of the most common beverages around the world and only recently has it been challenged by the pervasiveness of coffee in some parts of the world.

A fascinating history of the Early Victorian Tea Set

‘In Britain between 1840 and 1900 the consumption of tea and sugar quadrupled. Mass consumption required mass production on an industrial scale and huge tea plantations were developed by the British in India and Sri Lanka. New sources of sugar were also developed, reducing the role of the former slave plantations in the Caribbean. Tea drinking was regarded as patriotic as it supported British trade and empire, unlike wine and coffee, beverages of imperial rivals.’

Read more about this history of the world through objects: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/FWYgWOCSSpKKuF3pctC6tA

A brief history of ‘taking tea,’ http://www.highteasociety.com/history/

Pakistan, Short Essays

A short hop from Ludhiana to Lyallpur

11/12/2016 Pippa 5 Comments

View from the inside at Kaiseri gate.

One of the many stores in Faisalabad owned by migrants from Ludhiana.

The famous Ganta Ghar of Lyllpur, the clock tower built by 1905 to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Getting into a taxi can often lead to interesting conversations with the drivers. So when one evening I request a Careem (much like Uber around the world), I get into the car and as it happens quite often, the driver is usually baffled by the name (not an obvious Pakistani name) and the person who is sitting in the car (could be Asian but looks “foreign”). I explain that I am indeed Punjabi and use my best Punjabi accent to prove the point! However, the response from the driver is quite often in Urdu, even though I carry on speaking in Punjabi. This will continue or then sometimes the driver will feel comfortable enough to speak in Punjabi.

So then on this one evening, a young driver who turns out to be from Faisalabad (previously known as Lyallpur); he lives not far from Samundri, which is a tehsil of Faisalabad district. Lyallpur district began life in 1904 following the development of the canal colonies in West Punjab in the late nineteenth century. From being a small market town, Lyallpur has been transformed into Pakistan’s main agro-industrial centre following the partition of Punjab. One which has fundamentally changed Lyallpur in modern times is migration. Firstly following the development of these canal colonies and secondly, the migration following Partition in 1947.

Having discovered the driver was from Faisalabad, I choose to converse with him in Punjabi. He was both astonished and ecstatic at the same time. The joy of sharing the same language and accent as you, can sometimes do this to people. He had been in Lahore for some months now and was making a living driving for Careem. The familiar tones of someone, and in this case someone who he thought was a foreigner, speaking the same language that he had perhaps not heard so frequently since he arrived in Lahore immediately allowed us to bond during the short ride. The ride is in fact less than ten minutes, but it is amazing what can be gleaned in these short conversations.

As we discussed our mutual language I suggested to him that the elders in his family might have migrated over from Jullundar or Ludhiana, and he immediately said that yes, his paternal grand-father was from Jullundar. The distance that divide these two places is approximately 250 km. He came over after partition and settled in Lyallpur. I went on the make the connections between the two places, the place where I grew up on the other side of the border, and the place on this side of the border but both conversing in the same language in a neutral city. Perhaps it had never occurred to him that he also had some connection to the Indian side of Punjab via the language that he speaks.

At the end of the ride, his joy at making these small connections translated into him refusing to take any money from me. He said he could not do this. Sometimes life brings about things which cannot be measured in monetary terms, they are passing moments, glimpses of human kindness that leave you feeling richer.

Pakistan, Short Essays

The One-Unit, 1955

10/17/2016 Pippa Leave a comment

Like the previous post, to commemorate the inauguration of the One-Unit in Pakistan, three postage stamps were issued:

1½-anna, bottle green.
2-anna, dark brown.
12-anna, deep red.

The picture above is a first day cover issued on 7 December 1955, with a 1 ½ anna stamp which I just happened to came across during my stroll at the book fair on The Mall, Lahore which is held on Sundays.

One of the biggest challenges facing Pakistan after independence was maintaining the links between the two wings. This led to wider constitutional issues and so even after eight years of existence Pakistan did not have a constitution; it was still operating on colonial laws. Moreover, the two wings were divided by more a thousand (hostile Indian) miles. This of course would present challenges to the most stable of regimes and this is just a nascent nation trying to carve out a post colonial identity.

To bridge the multiple gaps between the two wings, the Government of Pakistan under Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra, decided that all four of the provinces in West Pakistan should be merged to constitute one-unit against East Pakistan. This would in effect mean that Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Pathans, Balochis would cease to have their regional identity and adhere to a yet another artificial political construct designed to posit the two wings against each other.

While geographically these two vast areas are split into two units, ethnic, religious and linguistic differences remained despite the political rationalization that was being put forward. Furthermore, while Urdu and Bengali were both accepted as state languages, English, the language of the colonial power and spoken a small minority of people, remained the official language of Pakistan. There was of course inevitably resistance from the four provinces who were being asked to relinquish their regional identity in a direct counter-measure against increased Bengali nationalism.

The uneasy relationship between the linguistic and ethnic differences encapsulated in the two wings of Pakistan created a divide which was difficult to resolve by the time the first general election was held at the end of 1970. In reality the longer-term impact of the one-unit was to create further division rather than bringing coherence and rationalization to the administrative landscape in Pakistan.

Pakistan, Short Essays

The first session of the National Assembly, Dacca, 1956

10/16/2016 Pippa Leave a comment

national-assembly-pakistan

To commemorate the first session at Dacca, East Pakistan, of the National Assembly of Pakistan, three postage stamps were issued on and from the 15th October 1956:—

1½-anna, bottle green
2-anna, dark brown
12-anna, deep red

The picture above is the first day cover with a 1 ½ anna stamp. I just came across it during a stroll at the book fair on The Mall, Lahore which is held on Sundays. The commemorative stamp was issued on the eve of Pakistan becoming the first Islamic Republic in the world. At the time Pakistan was made up of two wings, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. The National Assembly of Pakistan is the lower house of parliament and initially met in the capital Karachi. However, this was the first session of the National Assembly in Dacca and in fact the last time as well because two years later Ayub Khan became the first military dictator in Pakistan and eventually by the 1971, the country was on the brink of splitting up.

The stamp encapsulates the period when Pakistan ended its status as a dominion and was declared an Islamic Republic of Pakistan on 23 March. Hence this is day is celebrated as Republic Day in Pakistan. This of course is also the same day that Mohammad Ali Jinnah adopted the Pakistan Resolution (Lahore Resolution) outlining the two-nation theory. The full text of the 1940 Resolution is available via: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_jinnah_lahore_1940.html.

The Constituent Assembly became the interim National Assembly with Governor General Iskander Mirza as the first President of Pakistan. The Assembly had 80 members, half each from East Pakistan and West Pakistan. A turning point in Pakistan’s history, the Constitution required the president to be a Muslim and he (typically it was a he), had the power appoint the Prime Minister and he was also empowered with the ability to remove the Prime Minister, if there was a lack of confidence in his abilities. The Constitution of 1956 was written almost ten years after Pakistan was created, but crucially it set in motion a dangerous precedent; the President had the power to suspend fundamental rights in case of an emergency. Crucially though the Constitution of 1956 was short-lived because by 7 October, 1958, General Mirza dissolved the constitution and declared Martial law in Pakistan.

Pakistan, Short Essays

Gurdwara Rori Sahib, Eminabad

10/04/2016 Pippa 2 Comments

Gurdwara Rori Sahib is two km from Eminabad and about 55 km north of Lahore. It is located not too far from Gujranwala and the Grand Trunk Road. The Gurdwara marks an important site, where Guru Nanak after the destruction of the town had stayed with Bhai Lalo. The plaque at the gurdwara reads, ‘This is the holy place where Guru Nanak Dev ji came in his first pilgrimage. Guru Nanak dev I came here at Bhai Laalo ji’s home (Eminabad). It was a beautiful and silent place away from city, this’s why Guru Nanak ji sat down here and was prayed the almighty god regularly.’

The gurdwara was originally constructed on a large estate of nine marabbas. This has gradually been reduced down now. The land was originally endowed to the gurdwara during Maharaja Ranjit’s period and the gurdwara’s architecture is also from this period. The location and size of the gurdwara attracted large crowds of Sikhs, particularly during the Vaisakhi festival in April. There used to be a week-long fair during this period and attracted people from all the surrounding areas. The estate left today is a reminder of the old grandeur that would have existed when there was a sizeable Sikh population prior to 1947.

The entrance to Rori Sahib is grand, imposing and awe-inspiring, with the beautiful exposed red brick. The dome work and the columns are all in cut brick work. Accompanying the gurdwara is a large sarovar, which when I revisited the gurdwara ten years later, the water had evaporated.

Below are some of the pictures from when I first visited the gurdwara in 2006 and then most recently in October 2016.

Rori Sahib pictures from 2006.