The origins of modern Pakistan, it can be argued, have their traceable roots embedded in the early nineteenth century, for much of its nascent iden­tity – politically, economically, ad­ministratively and architecturally ­took shape during the 1800s.

British interests in north-westen’ areas of the subcontinent – Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab and the North­West Frontier (the four provinces of modern Pakistan) – took a decisive military left-turn during this period, as the British precipitated events which justified, at least to them, the annex­ation of Sindh in 1843 and the annex­ation of the Punjab in 1849. It was not long before they lurched acros”‘, Baluchistan and then hurried towards the Frontier to establish a picket con fronting Afghanistan.

Eve-witness accounts of the vari­ous campaigns were published almnst before the dust of war had settled, and in many cases these were supple­mented by vivid illustrations of the action. These were in the form of drawings, lithographs or latterly pho­tographs. Many were published in separate albums or used as illustra­tions by The Illustrated London News and The Graphic, popular news-peri­odicals of the time.

Using over 235 such illustrations, including rare works by Lt. William Edwards, Sir Keith Jackson, James Atkinson,William Simpson and some early photographs of Quetta in 1900 by Fred Bremner, each complemented \vherever possible by an ilppropriate extract from contemporary SO,I[(e5_ F. S Aijazuddin has presented 1 fasd­nating collage of the major cities of Pakistan as they appeared to outside observers and visitors during the nineteenth century.