Every city changes. New buildings go up, old ones are pulled down. People move in, others move out. Character shifts and tone alters. Rawalpindi is one such city. Situated on a popular ‘invasion route’, there has been a settlement in the area for over 3,000 years. Variously destroyed and rebuilt by the Huns, the first Muslim invader, Mahmud of Ghazni, the Sikhs and the British, Rawalpindi has seen a tenfold rise in population since 1960.

We visit some of the city’s hidden secrets with local art critic and photographer, Aasim Akhta, and ask whether all progress is good or whether the soul of the city has been left behind by the increased commercial development of recent decades.

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