I traveled in December 2010 in my 1994 Corolla GL from Karachi to Lahore and back and it was a nice journey.
I started on saturday 18 December 2010 at 2am from my house in defence Karachi and filled CNG near the airport which was the last CNG station on the way. I had a second refill of CNG at Hyderabad and later had CNG refills at Moro, Khairpur, Kot Sabzal in Sindh.
A few Kilometers before Kot Sabzal was the last CNG station in Sindh and there was a long queue and I had to spend an hour to get a CNG refill. The wait was worth it as there was no CNG available ahead in Punjab it being two days CNG load shedding in Punjab. After exhausting CNG I had to convert on petrol to reach Bahawalpur at 2 pm on 18 December, where I spend the night. It took me 12 hours to reach Bahawalpur from Karachi, at a speed of around 90 KM/hr, the road was good in Sindh and very good in Punjab.
Next day I started at 7 am and all the way till Multan it was very foggy, but luckily I was able to find a car which was moving at a speed of 70-80 KM/hr and I followed it all the way which helped me move in the fog, which otherwise would have reduced my speed considerably as after 20 meters nothing was visible. CNG was available at Multan, as CNG load shedding for Multan and areas ahead is on monday and tuesday and before Multan it is on saturday and sunday.
I had a second refill of CNG at Harrapa and then at Bhai Phero and finally at Lahore on sunday 19 December 2010. It took me one and a half hour from Bahawalpur to reach Multan and another five hours of driving at a speed of 120 KM/hr from Multan to Lahore. I stopped for an hour in Multan and Harrapa, the road from Bahawalpur to Multan is good and from Multan to Lahore is excellent.
At Lahore there was no CNG station open for the next two days (monday and tuesday)
On my way back I started from Lahore at 7:30 am on Tuesday 21 December and was using petrol, however I was able to find a CNG station just outside Lahore which was open despite being CNG load shedding but aside that I had to travel on petrol to reach Khanewal and from there I took the road to Bahawalpur bypassing Multan, but it proved to be a bad decision, it saved my 40 KMs but not in terms of time as the road from Khanewal to Bahawalpur if not two way and has a lot of traffic of trucks, trailers, pedestrian, bicycles, and even donkey carts, moreover the road is quite uneven. I would suggest to travel 40 KM more and take the Mutan Bahawalpur road.
I reached Bahawalpur at 2:30 pm, Bahawalpur onwards CNG was available, I continued to drive without rest, I did not stop except for meals twice,tea (twice) and CNG refills and reached Karachi from Lahore in around 20 hours, I started from Lahore at 7:30 am on 21 December, it took me around 45 minutes to come out of Lahore and at around 3:40 am on 22 December 2010 I was in Karachi (Toll Plaza). I drove at speed of 120-130 km/hr from Lahore till Khanewal and 80 Km/hr from Khanewal to Bahawalpur, 120-130 Km/hr Bahawalpur to Kot Sabzal, 80-90 KM/hr kot Sabzal to Hyderabad and 120-130 Km/hr Hyderabad to Karachi.
Traveling at night is safe but the road on the way back in Sindh is brokenfor around 150 KM from Kot Sabzal onwards and the traffic was at many times diverted to travel on the other side/direction of the road. At night the road was full of trucks and their slow speed and covering both lanes of the road to overtake each other made it difficult for me to maintain speed of 80-90 KM/hr as after almost every five minutes I had to drop to 60 KM/hr to find a way among the trucks to overtake them. Moreover many vehicles on the other direction of the road had full beam (head lights) on which almost blinds, in-addition the road in Sindh on the way back in many places does not have white line marking in the center or outer edge of the road which makes it difficult to drive at night, but one can manage.
Good CNG/petrol stations with toilets, road side restaurants, workshops are available all over the road from Karachi to Lahore. At many places Police with Camera checks your speed which is allowed from 70 to 100 Km/hr depending on different sections of the road. At quite some places police petrols with their blue and red lights were roaming and all the way it is safe to travel.