Vehari

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Vehari (Urdu: وہاڑی) is a city in Vehari District, Punjab, Pakistan.It is located about 65 miles from the regional metropolis of Multan. It is located about 10 miles from the southern-most of the five rivers (Sutlej) in Punjab "the land of the five rivers". Five rivers in the punjabi language are called (punj meaning five) and the Persian(Farsi) word (aab meaning water). Vehari is to the north of the Sutlej river. A headworks of canals is located on this river near Luddan on the Luddan-Vehari canal providing irrigation water to both banks of the river, which includes to the south of the river the upper fringes or the Choolistan desert. All year long the climate of the area is very hot in the summer and pleasent from October to February. The land is arid and dusty due to very little rain around the year. The mangoes are abundant in the summer and perhaps the most delicious in the world. The winter brings a great crop of citrus and guava. Vehari is the capital of the cotton growing area of this part of Pakistan. There are dozens of cotton processing factories and cotton-seed oil manufacturing plants in this area. Sugar cane grows easily and there are many sugar mills. Vehari is located on the southern alternate route of both railway and road beween Multan and Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The northern rout is the main route. Both of these routes run roughly in north-easterly direction, almost parallel to each other and are only 20 to thirty miles apart between each other any given point. . A section of the railway between Multan and Lahore is electrified on the main line between Khanewal and Lahore. The Vehari route goes to Lahore through the famous religiously renowned city of Pakpattan, where the sufi Saint Baba Freed Shakarganj is buried. Thousands of pilgrims come annually to Pakpattan for saint's "Urs" celebration which include all sorts of festivities. Baba Fareed's poetry has been included in the religius texts of Sikh religion. Mumtaz Ahmad Khan Daultana was from vehari, he was part of Pakistan freedom moment & was appointed the first Chief Minister of Punjab province.