Capital Hills – Through My Eyes

Islamabad, the capital city, has its own peculiarity with so many given names; city of rulers (civilian and army included), city of diplomats, bureaucrats, and elites; city of large and beautiful houses; city of expensive cars; a boring city where you can’t make friends; lush green with unusually high amount of pollen to make you sick with allergies and asthma; calm nights with sporadic yelling of jackals; good restaurants, small shopping markets, spacious roads and a number of hiking trails on Margalla hills.

If you are entering the city from either Lahore or Peshawar through Motorway you may not feel a vast difference in the landscape or quality of roads but if you travel through the adjoining Rawalpindi, you are bound to observe some changes; the driver immediately puts on seat belt, roads widen, traffic signals start working, and informative guide maps, street names/house numbers appear everywhere along the roads.

In spite of several incidents of terrorism, the Jinnah Super (main shopping mall of the city) remains bustling with local and foreigner shoppers. Centrally located in the market is a large open-air restaurant where you can take a coffee break and soothe your feet. The same premises has an attached open-air mosque, partly covered with tarpaulin to provide respite from scorching sun, rain, and to a certain extent from cold and chilly weather. I offered Mughrib (sunset) prayers here on two occasions during which it was hard to brush aside thinking that how soft target it was for a suicide bomber. Capital police can be seen everywhere to thwart any such attempt but unfortunately incidents do happen.

I had a chance to go for hiking twice on Trail 5 of Margalla hills. In the first instance I could hardly cover 2 kilometers; on next turn I made it to the 2.5 Km mark but not without panting heavily. Trail 5 is comparatively less visited and less glamorous unlike other trails. It is calm, surrounded by thick wild berry trees, and without much steeper incline till it reaches 2 km stone. Beyond that point it is like a ladder. On both occasions I was surprised to find brave solitary women hikers, both local and foreigners on the trail, beside groups of children, families, and of course, few couples on dating adventure. I was told that after some robbing incidents, Pak Rangers established pickets on the hills to prevent crimes. From then onwards hiking trails have been peaceful, full of fun and adventure.

Now let’s visit a graveyard located in I-8 Sector. This is the first of Muslim graveyards I have ever visited which is well maintained with scores of gardeners working in it; flowers and roses everywhere; graves garnished with glazed, expensive and colorful marble tiles have been made in well disciplined symmetries, and neat & clean walkways paved with concrete. Graveyard speaks of itself that only a rich can find a place here. Once high ranked army officers, top bureaucrats, renowned poets and elites of the city, are buried here now. Some of the innocent young boys, girls, and army officers who martyred in the terrorism acts in Islamabad are also resting here peacefully. Let’s pray for all the departed souls resting here.