Where history stands still

At Lahore's Wagah Border, a newly-built arena has opened with a museum that attempts to bottle the country's restless history, tracing the story from the independence movement to the present day with a blunt, unsentimental eye.

Central to the complex is a theme park built around the upheaval of the Partition, where white statues clamber across an old railway engine and carriages, lifting luggage, steadying children and saying farewells on platforms that once marked an uncertain escape.

Nearby, more figures trudge with bundles balanced on shoulders, ox-carts creaking under possessions, and families inching forward together. Models of military equipment and a martyrs' memorial sit alongside, reminding visitors that the state's formation came at a heavy, measurable cost.

Inside the Pakistan Museum, curated displays map politics, culture and conflicts from the independence movement onward, stitching together photographs, artefacts and narratives to present a timeline that refuses nostalgia and places fact, memory and consequence side by side.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the newly constructed arena at the Wagah Border in Lahore, at a ceremony this week attended by Punjab ministers and senior civil and military officials.

The event, organised by Pakistan Rangers Punjab at the Joint Check Post, marked completion of the expansion project, which has raised seating capacity from 7,500 to 25,000 spectators and added new structures across the site at Wagah.

The project also provides additional office spaces, barracks for Punjab Rangers personnel, a designated prayer area, food courts and a large parking facility. An Alamgiri Gate inspired by Lahore Fort now stands at Bab-e-Azadi, framing the raised national flag.

The national flag at the Joint Check Post, previously installed at a height of 115 metres, has now been raised to 139 metres. The flag is ranked as the seventh tallest in Asia and the tallest in South Asia.

It is pertinent to note that the expansion project was initiated in June 2024 by then caretaker Punjab chief minister Mohsin Naqvi. At the time of its launch, the estimated cost of the project was Rs30 billion.