Pir Sohawa Islamabad: Drive, Viewpoints and What's Open Now

Pir Sohawa is the viewpoint at the top of the Margalla Hills above Islamabad, reached by a paved road that climbs past Daman-e-Koh, about 25 to 30 minutes' drive from the city centre. It used to be known above all as a restaurant strip, with Monal the best-known name, but the big restaurants there were demolished in 2024 under a Supreme Court order and, as of late 2026, have not reopened on the site. Go for the drive and the view rather than a sit-down meal, and take food and water with you.

This guide covers the road up, what you actually find at the top, weekend crowds, and what remains after the restaurants closed.

The drive up

The road to Pir Sohawa leaves the city near the old Marghazar Zoo, climbs past the turning for Daman-e-Koh, and continues in a series of bends through forested hillside to the ridge at the top. It is paved throughout and manageable in an ordinary car, but it is narrow in places with blind corners, so drive it slowly, especially after dark or when it is wet.

Allow about 25 to 30 minutes from central Islamabad in normal traffic, longer on a weekend evening when the road itself becomes part of the queue. There is no public bus service up to Pir Sohawa; it is a drive, whether in your own car or a ride-hailing one, and the chairlift that once ran up from Daman-e-Koh has been out of service for some years over environmental concerns.

The viewpoints

Pir Sohawa sits at the top of the Margalla ridge, noticeably higher and cooler than Daman-e-Koh below it, with views that open out over Islamabad on one side and, in places, towards the hills of Haripur district on the other. On a clear day you can pick out the city grid, Faisal Mosque and the Shakarparian hills in the distance; on a hazy one, which is common in the warmer months, the view softens into outline rather than detail.

Several pull-offs and viewing points line the road along the ridge, so it is worth stopping more than once rather than driving straight to the old restaurant site and back. Evenings, particularly the hour before sunset, are when the light and the temperature are both at their best.

What happened to the restaurants

For years Pir Sohawa's reputation rested on its restaurants, above all Monal, a large multi-level restaurant that could seat well over a thousand guests with views over the whole city. In 2024 the Supreme Court ruled that commercial buildings inside Margalla Hills National Park were incompatible with its protected status, and ordered Monal and the other restaurants to close; by October 2024 the Capital Development Authority reported the structures demolished and the site cleared.

In July 2026 Pakistan's Federal Constitutional Court overturned that Supreme Court ruling on a technical appeal, but by then the buildings at Pir Sohawa were already gone, and there has been no confirmed reopening of a restaurant on the old site since. Monal itself reopened in March 2026, but at a new location in the city, Imarat Downtown, not at Pir Sohawa. Given how quickly this situation has moved through the courts, check current news before planning a special trip around eating at the top.

What is there now

What is left at Pir Sohawa is the drive, the viewpoints and a scatter of small, licensed kiosks that were allowed to stay along the road after the larger restaurants came down, selling tea, snacks and simple food. Don't build a meal plan around them; bring your own food and water if you want to picnic at the top, in the way you would for any of the open trailheads nearby.

The road continues a little further past the old restaurant site into quieter stretches of forest, popular with cyclists and with hikers using Trail 1 and Trail 4, both of which meet the Pir Sohawa road at their upper ends. Our comparison of every Margalla Hills trail covers those routes if you would rather arrive at the top on foot.

Weekend traffic and crowds

Pir Sohawa is at its busiest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, especially in the cooler months from October to March when families drive up for the air and the view rather than the heat of the city below. The road itself becomes the bottleneck: a single winding carriageway with cars parked along the verge near the viewpoints, and queues building as the light fades and everyone leaves at once.

A weekday visit, or a weekend morning, avoids almost all of this. If you do go on a weekend evening, allow extra time for the drive both ways and expect to look harder for parking near the main viewpoints.

When to go

October to March gives the clearest air and the most comfortable temperatures, though it is cold at the top after dark and worth taking a layer. April to June is hot in the city but noticeably cooler on the ridge, which is part of the appeal of the drive in summer; go in the early morning or evening rather than the middle of the day. The monsoon months, July to September, bring cloud that can close in fast, cutting the view to nothing, but also some of the sharpest, clearest evenings of the year right after heavy rain.

Is it worth the drive?

Yes, for the drive and the air more than for anything to do once you arrive. Pir Sohawa is not, at the moment, a place to plan a meal around, and if a sit-down restaurant with a view is what you are after, that experience currently exists in the city rather than on the hill. What you do get is one of the easiest short drives out of Islamabad, with real views and a noticeable drop in temperature, especially useful on a hot evening.

It suits people short on time or without their own transport less well, since there is no public bus and taxis both ways add up. In that case, Daman-e-Koh, lower down the same road and reachable by CDA feeder bus, gives a similar view over the city with food stalls actually open at the top; see our Daman-e-Koh guide for how to get there. For the rest of the capital's sights, our guide to places to visit in Islamabad covers where Pir Sohawa fits into a wider day.

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