Ministry Of Defence

The Ministry HQ Northern Command of British Indian Army was shifted to Rawalpindi in 1849. Setting up of Military Accounts Office was necessitated to manage the accounts of large forces employed in this Command. Consequently, a building was constructed on Mackson Road, later Adamjee Road, for ‘CMA-Western Circle’ which was completed in three years 1885-1888. The staff working in building mostly came from Calcutta thus becoming the basis for its commonly used name ‘Calcutta Daftar’. The building continued to be used by the Military Accounts Department upto 1966 when, with the establishment of Capital in Islamabad, the Ministry of Defence was shifted from Karachi to this building.