Danda Shah Bilawal
Danda Shah Bilawal is a village in Punjab, Pakistan. It is located on the route to Karachi between Talagang and Mianwali. Danda Shah Bilawal is at a distance of 195 km, or 2 hours and 48 minutes drive from Islamabad. Around forty people from this village took part in World War I, and two gave their lives. It has a population of 7,500. This village is the trade center for surrounding villages and towns because of its location on the main road.
History
This is a very old village with an interesting history. Danda means "small hill" while Shah comes from the name of saint Hazrat Noori Shah Sultan Bilawal. Noori Shah visited this village and then stayed here. Bilawal was a blacksmith who was a native of Danda and host of Noori Shah Sultan. Therefore, the name of the village was later changed from Danda to Danda Shah Bilawal. It is also said that the grave of a forefather of a former president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, is also there in the old graveyard of this village.
The village is important from an archaeological point of view. The ancestors lived where nowadays there are fields, where pots and other things from these sites can be found today.
Danda is also popular in the region as Sufism exists here and a lot of people visit Danda Shah Bilawal each year at the anniversaries of different peers (saints).
As far as the contribution of its men in the army is concerned, many people fought for their country. Almost every family has at least one soldier, and the graveyards are full of soldiers, both Shaheed and Ghazi. Many people of the village are currently serving in the armed forces. Ali Khan was awarded a Military Cross by the British government for his act of valour and bravery in the British Army.
Infrastructure
Danda Shah Bilawal has been granted as one of the ten model villages of Chakwal. Former Chief Minister of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, on the advice of Khalid Maqbool, the then Governor of Punjab, granted it as model village.
In 2008 Asif Ali Zardari announced the construction of Gambhir Dam, which is the largest small/medium dam of Pakistan. In the five-year reign of the Pakistan Peoples Party, no work has done on this project. Now the recent government has decided to start the project and an amount of Rs. 1.4 billion has been approved for the construction of Gambhir Dam in constituency PP-23.
The village has three private schools, one girls' high school and a boys' higher secondary school. In 1989, Nawaz Sharif, the then chief minister of Punjab, announced the formation of a boys' higher secondary school on the advice of a renowned personality of the village and lawyer advocate Noor Khan (late) who was then the president of Pakistan Muslim League (N)-Karachi.
The village also possesses a cricket stadium which lies on Danda-Lawa Road. Once called the Mian Chilku Stadium, its name has now changed to Shah Bilawal Stadium.
Coordinates: 32°47′N 71°57′E / 32.783°N 71.950°E