KARACHI, Dec 8: The American Express Foundation announced a grant of $25,000 to the United Way International to support the Shigar Fort, a project of the Aga Khan Cultural Service, Pakistan (AKCS,P).

The objective of the AKCS,P is to survey, restore, conserve and rehabilitate cultural heritage assets with a focus on northern Pakistan under the Historic Cities Support Programme of the Geneva-based Aga Khan Trust for Culture, part of the larger Aga Khan Development Network, a group of private, international, non-denominational agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in specific regions of the developing world.

The Shigar Fort project spread over from 1999 to 2005 is meant to restore the fort and a complex of buildings and spaces adjoining it, for re-use as an exclusive guesthouse offering 20 rooms with an audience hall and the ante-rooms serving as a museum of Balti woodcarving and local living traditions. It is half an hour by paved road from Skardu on the route to four 8,000-meter peaks in the Karakoram Range.