How ‘Aabpara’ got its name!

Aabpara Market, a crowded commercial zone located at the south west of sector G-6, Islamabad, along Khayaban-e-Suharwardy, is the oldest market of capital city of Pakistan.

Historically known as Baghan village before the capital was shifted to Islamabad, many people wonder why this market was named ‘Aabpara,’ because ‘aab’ means water and ‘para’ means piece, so literally it means ‘a piece of water’ but there is no stream or running water nearby.

Well, there is a story on social media which explains why this name was given to the market and since it’s something of interest, we thought we’d share it with readers, especially those who are not fans of social media and like to read books and newspapers!

In the new capital, this area was designated for civil servants and they lived here with their families.

Many of them were from what was known as East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In 1960 a baby girl as born to a Bengali lady and they named her ‘Aabpara’.

Since she was the first child to be born here, the residents celebrated the event and decided to name the locality after her since ‘new’ names were being given to many places around the new capital.

So where is ‘Aabpara’ now? Her parents migrated to Bangladesh after it came into being.

It would be interesting to find out whether she is still alive and what her thoughts are on having a market in Pakistan’s capital city being named after her.