The road from Quetta to Ziarat holds a huge huge significance in the history of Pakistan. It's the road where the Founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah died in a very controversial manner.
Ziarat is approximately at a distance of 100 kilometers from Quetta. After the independence of Pakistan, in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah resided in the Capital of Balochistan in Quetta. That's where he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. The doctor advised him to move to a mountainous area nearby, Ziarat for the betterment of his health. His condition worsened overnight and it was decided to move him to Ziarat in an Ambulance. Ziarat is at a distance of 2 hours, considering the poor infrastructure back in 1948, let's say it was over 3 hours back then.
On his way to Ziarat, the ambulance of Mohammad Ali Jinnah broke down allegedly and he died on his way to Ziarat. There are a lot of questions that the people of Pakistan have been asking since ages, such as how come the founder of Pakistan didn't have a chopper to escort him to another city? How the come the ambulance broke down out of nowhere and how come no rescue team was sent to save him. All these questions have been silenced throughout by the armed forces and quite amusingly, after the demise of the founder of Pakistan, a lot of Army Generals ruled in succession
I was in Quetta last week and wanted to give Ziarat a visit. Wanted to explore the city of Jinnah. The weather was unpredictable. It was sunny one moment and rainy the next, but none of us had the faintest of ideas that it would snow heavily in a few hours. Even the weather forecast hadn't mentioned any such thing. In order to return before dark, I left early in the morning in my car. The scenery on our way to Ziarat from Quetta was beautiful. Absolutely majestic, considering this province is known for its barren lands and dried up mountains.
30 minutes into the drive, it started raining. The weather turned from hot to pleasant and strong winds started to blow. I was with my 2 brothers and parents. We were still an hour drive away from Ziarat, I was immersed in a discussion with my father regarding my studies while my brothers were munching on snacks. It was then, we crossed a huge open field with a mountain in front of us, which had 6 different colors on it. I was awestruck to look at it and my phone couldn't do justice to the beauty it was radiating on us. Can you imagine? A single mountain as if painted with six different colors. I stopped the car at the side and all of us took a few pictures there.
Our dad got pretty angry on us for wasting time in the middle of the road as he wanted to get back to Quetta in daylight. After setting off from here our next stop was Ziarat. We didn't stop anywhere else. The main attraction in Ziarat was to visit the residency of Muhammad Ali Jinnah which was built for him and consisted of a lot of his belongings. Little did we know that our plans were to be sabotaged by turbulent weather conditions.
There was this beautiful gate at the entrance of the city. This is only seen outside small cities in Pakistan as big cities have a lot of entry points. We entered Ziarat through this gate.
The residency of Jinnah was built on top of a mountain. We reached there around 1 pm and got to know that it was closed for a prayers break and will be opened at 2 pm for visitors. We were discussing upon the possibilities in this period of an hour and it started to snow out of nowhere. Imagine, there's no rain, no signs of snowfall and it starts to snow out of nowhere.
For a person like me, who has never experienced Snowfall, I was excited as hell. I was jumping like a little happy child who gets all excited looking at the presents. We decided to travel back downhill and eat something in this period of one hour and then will visit this place at 2 pm.
Let me mention the unfortunate tragedy that we had to go through. Down in the town, we ordered some traditional Pakistani Samosas and tea to devour upon. It was raining heavily here with no signs of snowfall. This fooled us. We thought since its not snowing here, there won't be any snow up at the residence as well. After eating we all got back in the car and I drove towards the Jinnah's residence once again. As we moved upwards, the lightning from the clouds literally sent chills down my spine and there was heavy snowfall at the top of the mountain. We never reached the residency as no matter how hard I tried to drive my car uphill, it wouldn't bulge and would only slide downwards. My dad advised to not to put our lives at risk here as 1 had zero experience of driving in these conditions. Nevertheless, I stopped my car against my dad's instructions, my brothers and I got out of the car and we took some pictures of the snow that we had experienced for the first time in my life.
Sooo, that was it from my side. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Since now that I am back from Balochistan, I'll be focusing once again my trip to north series. In case you're wondering what I am talking about, read my last couple of blogs. Till then, take care byeee.
WHO IS HUZAIFANAVEED?
huzaifanaveed hails from Pakistan, who is an aspiring dentist, studying in one of the top notch universities of Pakistan, Jinnah Sindh Medical University.
he loves interacting with new people, making new friends and traveling the world, but most importantly he loves to make a change in this world through his actions and his words. He's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist who's been actively working with different Charitable Organizations in Pakistan.
His goal on Hive is similar, ie, to make a difference. He's here to mark his presence and he'll do it through his words. So lets be a part of his journey and show him support through comments, upvotes and reblogs.
