Shah Balut? It's a pine tree!

By Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman - The News International - Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

After the write-up on the park a number of people called to say that Shah Balut was a sufi saint; a local philanthropist and so on but the most sound explanation was given by a gentleman, Ijlal Haider Zaidi, who said the name means 'Pine tree' which is obviously correct as a few old pine trees are still standing there.

Now who would have thought a tree would have such a human sounding name -- though we often borrow the names of plants for humans -- so I guess I and many others can be forgiven for thinking it was a well known personality!

Anyway, what I said about honouring our local personalities in a proper manner still stands as there are other places which are not named after trees but local heroes.