PERCHED along the slopes of the rugged mountains of Ziarat, sparsely covered by the large juniper forests in the world, at an elevation of over 7000ft, the Ziarat Rest House, where the Father of the Nation spent the last few days of his life, during his fatal ailment, is a highly valued national monument.
The building including its immediate environs is well maintained. The modesty of furniture and fixtures of the building are preserved but also betray the financial straits the newly born state of Pakistan faced at the time. It also conveys the apathy of the district administration of the time who could have done a lot to make the dwelling more comfortable for the ailing Father of the Nation. The poor quality of furniture and fixtures of the time, of the rest house, present a perpetual source of embarrassment to the republic while viewed by the visiting dignitaries and foreigners. The grim and melancholy impression that a visitor gathers during the visit of the place may partially be due to the preamble of the greatest national loss that was written there. But primarily it speaks of the paucity of veneration accorded to the invaluable national monument by the relevant powers that mattered at the time.
A lot more could have been done to bring it up to the required standard of hallow it deserves.
Even a boundary wall has not been constructed around the building and the entry point to the rest house is as shabby as it could be. Some other buildings have also come up in the vicinity of the monument, like the Chief Minister House etc., causing congestion to the complex. The propriety demanded that a much larger area, befitting the importance of the monument, should have been reserved, properly landscaped and developed to reflect the national aspirations. It could have been developed on the lines of Quaid’s Mausoleum in Karachi, though at a lesser scale.
The existing museum could have been more elaborate where the display of a log of events should have been included, acquainting the visitors with all what happened during those fateful days and who all visited the Quaid including the names and photographs of the personal physician, the personal staff and important visitors. The museum could also include the brief history of Quaid’s major engagements and achievements since the creation of the state of Pakistan to date. A visitor visiting the monument with veneration returns with number of questions and thirsty of lot of information which should normally be there.
The present caretaker staff of the Rest House is far below the required standards. The personnel are uneducated and evince interest only in the kind of visitors who could tip them to their liking. There should be no debate about the measure that the monument should have educated and properly trained staff to conduct the visitors of various hues and should be able to satisfy different queries about the event. Sign posting from Ziarat bazaar to the Rest House has not been done at all and the approach road speaks of the bankruptcy or sheer apathy and disregard of the relevant highway authority.
The distance from Quetta to Ziarat is only 120 kilometres but it takes almost three and a half hours to commute that distance due to very bad road. The road patch of 70km from Quetta towards Ziarat is all right and takes only about one hour but the remaining 50km patch is so bad that it takes the remaining time at a snail’s pace. If the road would have been in a good condition, the total travelling time is an hour and a half only. Bad road is the main inhibiting factor for the visitors to undertake the venture of visiting Ziarat. We did observe some plodding work going on with regard to the improvement of the road but it just amounted to mimicking the gigantic task of constructing a 50km long, all weather, carpeted road in a hilly terrain, satisfying the requirements of modern technology involved in road construction.
Ziarat incidentally happens to be housing an important national monument under discussion, but even divorced from that arrangement. Ziarat is one of the most immaculate hill resorts gifted to Pakistan by nature. At least in the province of Balochistan no other spot rivals Ziarat as a hill resort. The mountain, at the base of which Ziarat town and our monument are located, is at an elevation of 3482 meters. A chair lift and cable car, like those in Patriata should be set up here for the tourists. The apathy of the government towards the premium health resort of Ziarat is least palpable. Any expenditure on the uplift of Ziarat will be a highly promising investment, which is sure to fetch a handsome income in times to come. I am sure there will be no dearth of parties prepared to invest in various tourist ventures in Ziarat, even on turn key basis.
When one climbs beyond the monument for a few kilometre there is another captivating spot, which could be developed into a great tourist attraction. There is a shrine of an old saint where a lot of people visit and congregate. Many would like to spend more time and stay overnight but due to the absence of services have perforce to return. It is located at a beautiful pass in the mountain from where the landscape presents an enchanting idyllic view on both sides of the watershed. This is in fact the spot after which the name Ziarat of the entire settlement has found currency. A sizable number of tourist huts, along with a hotel, could be constructed here by the tourism department, which would bring lot of income to the department on the one hand and promote tourism on the other. “Seeing is believing”, the panorama of a valley that opens towards south-east from this pass is remarkably beautiful with diverse topography and landscape. Given proper advertisement, it could attract tourists even from beyond the frontiers of Pakistan. This could be one of the stages of the chairlift and cable car proposed earlier. The feasibility of these ventures, if properly prepared by the technically relevant agencies, may also suggest a host of other related items of tourist attraction and of income generation interest.
Fifty-seven years have passed since independence. No more can we excuse ourselves of infancy. We can learn a lot from other civilized nations as to how the symbols of national pride should be managed and maintained and how our heritage is presented to the subsequent generations. It is better to be late than never and it is my profound hope that the relevant quarters will undertake measures to prove that we are a vibrant nation and not just the conglomerate of heterogeneous people living on ad hoc basis.
PERCHED along the slopes of the rugged mountains of Ziarat, sparsely covered by the large juniper forests in the world, at an elevation of over 7000ft, the Ziarat Rest House, where the Father of the Nation spent the last few days of his life, during his fatal ailment, is a highly valued national monument.
