India, July 5 -- In October 1970, Mustafa Zaidi, a high-ranking former bureaucrat and famous poet was found dead in his bedroom in Karachi. Shahnaz Gul, a beautiful young socialite lay unconscious on the floor. She was 26, he had been 40. Both were married with two children each, and had been having a very public affair.

At the time, Karachi was an exuberant city with a thriving nightlife, "a bevy of eligible men, and more glamourous women than anyone could count." Socialites dressed in sarees with short sleeveless blouses. There were parties, nightclubs hosting belly dancers and cabarets, and a whole lot of drinking. The Zaidi-Gul scandal shocked Pakistani society. It revealed the uninhibited excesses and the sordid underbelly of Karach...