Minar-e-Pakistan

Minar-e-Pakistan stands in Iqbal Park in Lahore, on the ground where the Lahore Resolution was passed in March 1940 — the demand that led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

The tower was completed in the 1960s, around sixty metres tall, rising from a base of terraced platforms. Visitors can climb it, and the view takes in the old city, the fort and the Badshahi Mosque.

For a Sikh yatra group its significance is less about the monument than about the year it commemorates. Partition in 1947 is why these shrines sit on the other side of a border from the community that reveres them, why a yatra needs a visa at all, and why the Kartarpur Corridor exists. Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib, Kartarpur and Dera Sahib were not always places you needed permission to reach.

Most groups stop briefly, usually alongside the fort and the Badshahi Mosque, which are close by. It is a short visit and an unsentimental one, and it puts the rest of the itinerary in its proper frame.

Konnect Yatra groups travel together with our own transport and staff throughout the Lahore programme.

What a visit involves

A brief stop in Iqbal Park, usually alongside the fort and the mosque, which are close by. The tower can be climbed for a view over the old city.

Allow thirty to forty-five minutes.

Before you go

• The climb is stairs only. Skip it if that is difficult; the ground-level platforms give most of the effect.
• The park is open ground with little shade.
• Ask our staff for the short version of what 1940 led to. On a yatra it explains why these shrines now need a visa to reach, which is the frame for everything else on the trip.

Getting there from your hotel

Iqbal Park is beside the old city, minutes from the fort, and the stop is folded into the same outing. Konnect Yatra groups travel by private coach with our own staff.