Chichawatni

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Chichawatni is a historic site in Pakistan. It is unique as it is a small town about 25km from Sahiwal. It is situated very conveniently on the famous Great Trunk Road, otherwise known as the "G.T. Road" and has an attractive railway station. With all the facilities of a large city in a small town, Chichawatni is a thriving town with very good economic growth. It is famous for its crops of wheat, cotton, sugar cane and ice cream parlours. This small and attractive Pakistani town lies approximately 20km from the ancient Upper Indus site of Harappa and an excellent stop-over for Tourists interested in traditional crafts and mouth-watering, delicious Pakistani cuisine. Serving many local villages, this humble but highly industrious agricultural town also boasts several colleges and institutions for higher education reflecting the town's acute emphasis on education. Towns people come from many different backgrounds, from poor farmers to aristocratic Zamindars (landowners) usually of upper caste Gujjar, Rajput and Jat stock. Local administrators, otherwise known as "Zaildars" and "Safedposh" or "white-robed nobles", form the political elite of the town and may also be found as civil servants in most local government offices. During the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947, many aristocratic Muslim families fled from Punjabi towns like Firozpur in India and settled in towns like Chichawatni. Local Gujjar aristocrats in Chichawatni, originally from Firozpur, are quite happy to show Tourists photos of the splendid Palaces and gardens vacated by them during the unfortunate events of the India-Pakistan Partition. Chichawatni also accommodates a large Christian community, usually drawn from the very poorest sections of society. The Christians are a respected, hard-working and gentle community in an otherwise overwhelmingly Muslim town. Attitudes towards Christians have been inflamed by the short-lived increase of fundamentalist rhetoric in certain Mosques but overall this negative rhetoric has been mellowed by the sheer volume of important Sufi Shrines, whose calming and uplifting spiritual influence still pervades the town and the many local villages it serves. It is also the home town of Shazia Hidayat, one of the few women who represented Pakistan in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.