Professional Documents
Culture Documents
together with India and Bangladesh, was part of the British Empire.
On independence in 1947 the state of Pakistan was formed with two
wings, West and East. In 1971, after a war, East Pakistan seceded
and became the separate country of Bangladesh. Pakistan has five
main ethnic groups of its 147 million population, they speak seven
main languages and 97% of them are Muslim.
Note to images: where not attributed, the pre-1975 pictures are taken from
Women of Pakistan, a book produced by the Government of Pakistan for
International Womens Year, 1975.
Women in political struggle
Jahanara Shahnawaz
The two women members of the first
Constituent Assembly (1946-54) are both in
saris.
Saris were commonly worn by urban
professional women in West Pakistan (now
Pakistan) until the late 1970s.
The national struggle threw many women into the limelight as
determined freedom fighters. Hundreds of them filled British jails. The
story of the young girl who, defying the Police, scaled the walls to hoist
the Muslim League flag atop the Punjab Assembly building in Lahore, has
now become a legend.
Working class
fast food outlet,
Lahore.
K M Chaudry, The
Muslim, March
Karachi Stock
Exchange
workers.
AFP, The Nation,
September 1999
Harvesting wheat in Punjab (2000)
Women crossing the dried up Indus river in search of
water, Sindh Province.
AFP, The Nation, March 2001
Drama artists rehearsing in Radio
Pakistans studio in Rawalpindi.
ISLAMABAD: National dress should be worn on formal occasions, this is not a demand
of the newly emerged Islamic political force - Muttahida Majlis-e-Aamal - but a
direction of the military regime to all its key members and top bureaucrats.
Through an "immediate" circular issued to all the federal ministers, advisers and key
bureaucrats including federal secretaries, the cabinet secretary Javed Masud directs
that on all formal occasions the national dress should be worn.
The ministers, secretaries, advisers most of whom have been seen wearing western
attire during the last three years of the military regime are now told to wear national
dress ie "white or black sherwani/achkan or a buttoned up black waist-coat (V shaped
in summer and closed collar in winter), kurta/kamees and shalwar/pyjama, black
shoes and matching socks, preferably with Jinnah Krakuli cap."