This article was first published at dunya news blogs.

Recently the government of Punjab has inaugurated the facility of tourist bus in Lahore, the first of its kind in Pakistan. The primary, stated, objective is to promote tourism with the secondary objective of having a cut piece in newspapers in favour of the CM and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N). For me, however, the primary reason is the media atten

The concept of tourist bus came from the developed countries where the places of historical importance are given adequate attention and are preserved with maximum possible care. Such is unfortunately not practiced in Punjab. Because it’s a Shahbaz Sharif initiative, let’s talk about the developments after 2007 when he was sworn in as the CM for second time. Luckily I started my tourism activity in the same year. Wandering in Punjab and then to northern areas has been my passion from the day I started earning coins. At that time, I was living in Multan which is known to be among the oldest cities of subcontinent. The Multan Fort that is now a park with some ruins left. It is dying a slow death. I have heard that there is some committee that is working on the possible framework (still the framework) to preserve the heritage.

Other than that, the forts in Punjab are all in terrible condition; particularly the UNESCO heritage Rohtas Fort that has witnessed no improvement in the past 7 years. Similarly, countless historical sites inside Lahore are neglected. The most interesting among all is an abandoned Sikh Gurdwara located just 5 km from Jati Umra. This Sikh gurdwara is a perfect example of religious bigotry and negligence towards our heritage.

While searching about the historical background of this antediluvian site I found this interesting piece.

When I visited that gurdwara with my friend in 2012 it had a wall that indicates the government land and within it a poor Christian family was residing. A two-storey wall, a doom and a room was all that is left of that historical land. I wish that someday the CM of Punjab, while traveling on his helicopter, can see that a historic place just beneath his nose is dilapidated and I wish he gives more importance to the real and original work to preserve it, instead of doing fancy deeds to get a one-day coverage.

The following information about Shyok river is given by Raheel Adnan.
Historic touch - extracted from "Karakoram and Western Himalayas" - 1909 by Flippo de Flippi. The Italians travelled from Pinidi - Kohala - Jhelum Valley - Sri Nagar - Sonamarg - Dras - Olding - Gambat - Gol and onwards to Skardu. The team led by Duke of Abruzzi attempted K2. "About eight miles below Parkutta the Indus meets one of its greatest confluents, the river Shyok, which comes down from the Dapsang table-land, gathering in its course of nearly 400 miles the waters of the numberless glaciers which flow down the southern slopes of half the Karakoram. As at Dras, the meeting of the waters takes place at the bottom of a narrow gorge. Oestreich has identified at a height of from 700 to 1,000 feet above the present level, on the walls of both valleys, what he considers the remains of level terraces which marked the confluence of these two rivers at an earlier period. There are signs which indicate that the Shyok was at one time filled up by a glacier which projected into the Indus valley, where it formed a barrier some 1,000 feet in height, but did not, however, dam the course of the river. This phenomenon can be seen to-day in the upper Nubra valley, and we shall find a most clearly marked example in the case of the Biafo glacier. The whole of this region is still very little known, and the data we possess regarding its glacial history, as well as all other questions concerning the Indus basin, are so incomplete as to be hopelessly insufficient to support any general theory. As early as 1847 Thomson observed that the he of the loose rocks and detritus at the mouth of the gorges and lateral valleys suggested a glacial origin. Conway identified them more explicitly as loose boulders and moraine residuum. Oestreich believes that the Indus valley itself was never occupied by a glacier, but only the tributary valleys. In fact, geologists in general seem to hold that the Himalayan region has never been the scene of periods of " Inlandeis " (hke Greenland, Europe and North America), nor of large " pedemontane " glaciers (such as the Malaspina glacier in Alaska, and the former glaciers on the northern slopes of the Alps) ; but has merely witnessed periods of very considerable expansion of the glaciers in the mountains themselves, such as took place in the valley of the Po, where only the largest glaciers succeeded in emerging from the valleys as far as the edge of the plain. Godwin Austen is of this opinion, and cites indications of two distinct glacial periods, separated by an interval of milder chmate. Strachey and MedUcott hold similar views."

Lahore Fort

This article was published in Daily Waqt dated Spetember 01, 2013

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