Daily Times

Sir: Mardan was made district on January 1, 1937 and now it is 80 years old. It is the second biggest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Peshawar. Mardan has great significance as a seat of Gandhara civilisation. Archeological sites dating back to the Gandhara civilisation and located in Mardan include TakhtBhai, Jamal Garhi, Shahbaz Garhi, Kashmir Smast, Sari Behlol, etc. Fasting Buddha statue was excavated at Sikray Baba, Mardan by Colonel H A Dean which is presently displayed at Lahore museum.

District Mardan has a vast fertile land irrigated with integrated canal network. A number of cash and cereal crops are grown in the district, besides fruits and vegetables. Mardan is also known as the land of sugarcane and tobacco with Premier Sugar Mill as the biggest sugar mill of its time in Asia. Besides, Frontier Sugar Mill located at TakhtBhai is amongst the oldest mills in Asia.

Mardan is the abode of (i) Nawab Sir Muhammad Akbar Khan Hoti; (ii) three Governors namely Lt. General FazleHaq, Col. Nawabzada Abdul Ghafoor Khan Hoti and Maj. General Syed Ghawaz and; (iii) three Chief Ministers namely Mir Afzal Khan, Lt. General FazleHaq and AmeerHaider Khan Hoti. Besides, a number of federal ministers, senior military officers and bureaucrats and people from other walks of life hail from Mardan.

It merits a mention that district Mardan is home to the Punjab Regiment Centre and Guides Cavalry. The then Prime Minister of China, Chu-in-Lai, had paid visit to Mardan in nineteen fifties at the invitation of the then minister Col. Nawabzada Muhammad Amir Khan Hoti during his historic visit to Pakistan. He was given a warm welcome at Hoti House in the traditional manner of the Pakhtoon culture.

KHAN FARAZ

Peshawar