To complement his previous stories on Afghanistan in the early 1970s, here is Thrifty Traveller’s first-hand account of his travels through Pakistan with his family 50 years ago.

Don’t miss part 2 of this article tomorrow.

Fun family times

My parents and big sister lived in Pakistan during 1970/71, and I used to travel out to visit them from the United Kingdom during the school holidays. My big brother was studying in England at the time but he joined us on at least one of those holiday trips.

These were fun family times. Here are some of Mum and Dad’s photos of Pakistan then.

My dad was working at the British High Commission in Islamabad. Whenever he had a day off, he would drive us up into the hills to places like Murree, a hill station 31km from the capital.

Here, at an altitude of around 2.3km, the air was cooler, and snowy in winter; fresh and scented with pine, and we could see for miles.

We sometimes had lunch or afternoon tea at the Cecil Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Pakistan dating back to 1851.

The Holy Trinity Church was located at the Mall, which was the centre of colonial life in the town during the days of the Raj.

On one occasion, Dad drove us as far as Abbottabad in the mountainous Hazara region about 120km north of Islamabad.

This town was founded and named after Major James Abbott, an English military officer in the Bengal army, in 1853. It was here that Osama bin Laden was found hiding in 2011.

This article first appeared in Thrifty Traveller.