History
Ancient History
Wah Cantt is adjacent to Taxila City, which is enriched with one of the most important archaeological sites of the world. The ancient name of Taxila was 'Takshasila' means the "city of cut stones". Taxila had been the cradle of the world’s greatest civilization. It is the place where Civilization and sculpture art took roots and flourished. Taxila was conquered by Alexander in 327 BC. It later came under the Mauryan dynasty and attained a remarkably mature level of development under the great Ashoka. Then appeared the Indo-Greek descendants of Alexander’s warriors and finally came the most creative period of Gandhara. The great Kushan dynasty was established somewhere near 50 AD. During the next 200 years, Taxila became a renowned center of learning, philosophy and art. Pilgrims and travelers were attracted to it from as far away as China and Greece.
The beginning of Sheikh empire in the subcontinent was in the 16th century which has had a significant impact on the city. It is said that Jehangir’s army, the fourth Mughal emperor, was coming back from Kashmir mission, it was evening time, and they were tired and looking for a place to stay. They started to search an appropriate place among Barren Mountains. After a little search they were successful to find a place, where there was natural source of water. As soon as the Mughal King watched the natural spring, he loudly said ”Wah”. His words punched on the stones of history. After that day, this territory is called Wah.[2] The Mughal advent had a strong influence on the architecture of the city which is still visible to date with prominent Mughal sites like the "Losar Bawli" and the Wah Gardens.
Post Partition history
After gaining Independence Pakistan had no factories capable of producing armaments and military goods so urgent plans were made for an ordinance factory in Wah, Punjab. The word Cantt was added to Wah in 1951, when Prime Minister Khawaja Nazim-u-Din unveiled the stone of Pakistan Ordnance Factories Wah Cantt. It is the sole one Ammunition factory of Wah cantt.It is the complex of 14 factories.
Geographical location
Wah Cantt is located in the north west of Islamabad ay the distance of 50KM. It is a valley as it is surrounded by hills from all directions. Mughal Emperor Zaheer-UD-Din Baber has mentioned in his book about the Wah region.
Wah has a historical background. Wah has always been a favorite place of the Mughal rulers. They built here several gardens such as the most famous “Wah Garden”. It is still present with its remains. It is located on the main G.T Road bisecting the Islamabad. Garden has a historical value as well as it is a beautiful and attractive picnic spot. Still this park has potential to drive the people from different places.
Wells are the important remaining of the Mughals; one of them still exists with its Mughal glory that is in the Sher Shah Park Aslam Market, where it is said that Sher Shah horses used to drink water. Wah is the area having fertile soil. It is suitable for growing every sort of crops and especially fruits. This area was not so much developed before the construction of the Pakistan Ordinance Factories.
Culture
Wah Cantt is a multicultural City. People from various ethnicities of the Pakistan are serving here. Culture from Karachi to Khyber can be observed in the city. People are skillful and literate and most of them are factory employees. The city is rather quite in the morning, but all charm of the city is restored in the evening. The city is said to have one of the best civic amneties in the entire country with a solid health care and education system.
It is divided into 27 sectors and some private housing colonies. The commonly known colonies are Gulistan colony , Basti / Lala Rukh and Nawab Abad. Popular markets include Aslam market, Basti market,Anwaar chowk,Laiq Ali chowk and Nawab Abad . It is distinguished because of a very high standard of education and literacy rate,approximately 100%and highest in Asia. 115 educational institutions serve over 50000 students.And recently,it has become one of the most expensive cities of the country to live in.The secret of this hike is,disciplined living and strictly coscientious society,where parents are reprimanded for keeping the kids away from school,even for a single day without cogent reason. [3]
Defense
The Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), is responsible for conventional weapons production and is located in Wah Cantonnement. POF is a government organization operating under the Defense Production Division in Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense. POF is a complex of arms and ammunition manufacturing factories employing more than 40,000 personnel. POF has provided weapons and ammunitions to the Pakistan Army and all their foreign clients. However, since POF can not produce the complete inventory of the Pakistani Army's armament needs, a high content of the Armed Force requirements are imported. POF produces approximately 70 major products for supply of Army, Navy and Air Force. The main products include automatic rifle; light medium and heavy machine guns, complete range of mortar and artillery ammunitions, aircraft ammunition and anti-aircraft ammunitions, tank ammunition and anti-tank ammunitions, bombs, grenades, land mines, pyrotechnics and signal stores etc.
Educational Institutes
Wah Cantt, having an area of no more than 35 square kilometers (approx.), is most dense town in Pakistan regarding the quality & quantity institutes it has.
Apart from lot of private and government schools upto 12th level, foundations of professional universities have been laid down in past 5 years. Wah Medical College., University of Wah. (which includes Wah Engineering College & Mishal University), Comsats Institute of Information and Technology are among the big institutes in Wah Cantt. In private sector, Wah Swedish Institute of Technology, Rawalpindi College of Commerce and Rawalpindi Institute of Technology are popular technical education institutes.In government sector there is TTI famous technical education institute.
Footnotes
Also there are many Federal Government School and College those are ensuring highest quality of education. Usually in every session there must exist many students in Top Ten Position Holders of FBISE and University of Punjab Examinations.You find the best in defence services,medical and engineering professions,commerce and corporate fields,all coming from Wah cantt.Soon, another breed of top professionals will join the ranks of the best, after graduation from a score of recently upgraded multiple professional institutions .
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