Pakistan
/ Peshawar / The New Peshawar
Across the
railway line was built the new modern Peshawar, the Cantonment,
like the ones which the British built near every major city for
their administrative offices, military barracks, residences, parks,
churches and shops.
The Peshawar
Saddar" (Cantonment) is a spaciously laid out neat and clean township
with avenues of tall trees, wide tarred roads, large single- storeyed
houses with lawns and a pervading scent of rare shrubs and flowers
that is Peshawars own.
The heart
of the Saddar is the Khalid bin Walid (Company) Bagh which is
an old Moghal Garden. Its huge ancient trees and gorgeous big
roses are a sight to remember. Two other splendid old gardens
are the Shahi Bagh in the north-east and the Wazir bagh in the
south-east, all of which give the character of a garden city to
Peshawar.
In the Saddar
is the splendid modern State Bank building. Governors House. hotels,
old missionary Edwardes College. a richly stocked Museum, a fine
shopping area and right in the middle is the Tourist Information
Centre at Dean's Hotel (Phone: 279781).
The Peshawar
of the hoary past is the old city. the Peshawar of the British
period (1849 to 1947) is the Cantonment but the Peshawar of independent
Pakistan is the vast extension of the city west and east.
Westward,
on the road to the Khyber, where in the days gone by. no one was
safe from tribal raids, today stretches a long line of educational
and research institutions, such as the Academy of Rural Development.
the Teachers Training College, the North Regional Laboratories
of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and many
others.
But the pride
of Peshawar today is its University a vast sprawling garden town
of red brick buildings and velvet lawns, which comprises a dozen
departments and Colleges of Law. Medicine, Engineering and Forestry.
Special mention must be made of the lslamia College. which was
the pioneer national Institution that ignited the torch of enlightenment
in this region, 67 years ago.
The road
stretching out east towards Rawalpindi is lined for miles upon
miles with factories producing a variety of goods and also orchard
producing some of the worlds finest plums, pears and peaches.
Rice, sugar-cane and tobacco are the rich cash-crops of the well-watered
Peshawar valley through which flows the Kabul River and at the
end of which the mighty Indus forms the district boundary for
48 1/2 kms (30 miles), the two joining near the historic Attack
Fort.
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