SAHIWAL: Sahiwal Art Council (SAC), in collaboration with the Government Post-Graduate College and other local partners, is celebrating ‘50 Years of Sahiwal City’.

During the colonial era, a British town planner developed a small town “Montgomery” on the Karachi-Lahore railway line which was named after Sir Robert Montgomery, the then lieutenant Governor of Punjab. The town was developed at the site of an old village, Sahi; taking its name from a native Kharal Rajput clan. The village was located in Bari Doab, the area between the beds of River Satluj and River Ravi. Later, the town was given the status of district.

Long after the partition, in 1967 the Government of Pakistan renamed the town as Sahiwal.

The SAC has arranged a number of cultural programmes to mark the golden jubilee of the renaming of the town, including quiz contests, folk singing and dance competitions, a music concert and a painting exhibition.

SAC Resident Director Aqeel Ashfaq told Dawn that on the occasion the council would also honour some two dozen individuals for making extraordinary efforts for promoting cultural and intellectual heritage of the city. These individuals included local philanthropist, Punjabi poets, historians, educationists literary figures and development practitioners, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2016