Bahawalpur بہاول پور | |
|---|---|
 Clockwise from top:Noor Mahal Palace,Gulzar Mahal,Sadiq Dane High School,Darbar Mahal Palace,Sadiq Mosque,Fareed Gate | |
| Nickname: City of Palaces | |
  Bahawalpur  Bahawalpur | |
| Coordinates:29°23′44″N71°41′1″E / 29.39556°N 71.68361°E /29.39556; 71.68361 | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Province |  Punjab |
| Division | Bahawalpur |
| District | Bahawalpur |
| Union councils | 21 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Metropolitan Corporation |
| • Mayor | Vacant[1] |
| • Commissioner | Ehtisham Anwar[2] |
| Area | |
• City | 246 km2 (95 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 24,830 km2 (9,590 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 118 m (387 ft) |
| Population | |
• City | 903,795(13th in Pakistan) |
| Time zone | UTC+5 (PKT) |
| Postal code type | 63100 |
| Area code | 062 |
| Website | Bahawalpur / Punjab Portal |
Bahawalpur (Urdu:بہاول پور;Urdu pronunciation:[bəɦɑːwəlˈpuːɾ]) is a city inPunjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and8th most populous city of Punjab.[6] Bahawalpur is the capital ofBahawalpur Division.
Founded in 1748 by theDaudpotra family ofSindh, Bahawalpur was the capital of the formerprincely state of Bahawalpur,[7] ruled by theNawabs of Bahawalpur until 1955. TheNawabs left a rich architectural legacy, and Bahawalpur is known for its monuments dating from that period.[8] The city lies at the edge of theCholistan Desert, and serves as the gateway to the nearbyLal Suhanra National Park.
Bahawalpur was among the 584 princely states before thePartition of India.[9]
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Bahawalpur State was home to various ancient societies. The Bahawalpur region was part of Multan province ofMughal Empire in recent history.[11] It contains ruins from theIndus Valley civilisation, as well as ancient Buddhist sites such as the nearbyPatan minara.[12] British archaeologist SirAlexander Cunningham identified the Bahawalpur region as home of theYaudheya kingdoms of theMahābhārata.[13][14] Prior to the establishment of Bahawalpur, Cholistan region's major city wasUch Sharif – a regional metropolitan centre between the 12th and 17th centuries that is renowned for its collection of historic shrines dedicated toMuslim mystics from the 12–15th centuries built in the region's vernacular style.[15]
Bahawalpur was established in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal Khan I,[16] after he migrated to the region aroundUch fromShikarpur,Sindh.[17] Bahawalpur replaced Derawar as the clan's capital city.[18] The city initially flourished as a trading post on trade routes between Afghanistan and central India.[19]
In 1785, theDurrani commander Sirdar Khan attacked Bahawalpur city and destroyed many of its buildings on behalf of Mian Abdul NabiKalhora of Sindh.[20] Bahawalpur's ruling family, along with nobles from nearbyUch, were forced to take refuge in theDerawar Fort, where they successfully repulsed further attacks.[20] The attacking Durrani force accepted 60,000 rupees asnazrana or tribute, though Bahawal Khan later had to seek refuge in theRajput states as the Afghan Durranis occupied Derawar Fort.[20] Bahawal Khan returned to conquer the fort by way of Uch, and re-established control of Bahawalpur.[20]
Theprincely state of Bahawalpur was founded in 1802 by Nawab Mohammad Bahawal Khan II after the break-up of theDurrani Empire, and was based in the city.
In 1807,Ranjit Singh of theSikh Empire laid siege to the fort inMultan, prompting refugees to seek safety in Bahawalpur in the wake of his marauding forces that began to attack the countryside around Multan.[20] Ranjit Singh eventually withdrew the siege, and gave the Nawab of Bahawalpur some gifts as the Sikh forces retreated.[20]
Bahalwapur offered an outpost of stability in the wake of crumbling Mughal rule and the declining power ofKhorasan's monarchy.[20] The city became a refuge for prominent families from affected regions and also saw an influx of religious scholars escaping the consolidation of Sikh power in Punjab.[20]
Fearing an invasion from the Sikh Empire,[21] Nawab Mohammad Bahawal Khan III signed a treaty with theBritish on 22 February 1833, guaranteeing the independence of theNawab and the autonomy of Bahawalpur as a princely state. The treaty guaranteed the British a friendly southern frontier during their invasion of the Sikh Empire.[21]
Trade routes had shifted away from Bahawalpur by the 1830s, and British visitors to the city noted several empty shops in the city's bazaar.[19] The population at this time was estimated to be 20,000,[19] and was noted to be made up primarily of Hindus.[19] Also in 1833, theSutlej andIndus Rivers were opened to navigation, allowing goods to reach Bahawalpur.[20] By 1845, newly opened trade routes toDelhi re-established Bahawalpur as a commercial centre.[20] The city was known in the late 19th century as a centre for the production ofsilk goods,lungis, andcotton goods.[22] The city's silk was noted to be of higher quality than silk works fromBenares orAmritsar.[19]
An 1866 crisis over succession to the Bahawalpur throne markedly increased British influence in the princely state.[23] Bahawalpur was constituted as a municipality in 1874.[24] Bahalwapur's Nawab celebrated theGolden Jubillee ofQueen Victoria in 1887 in a state function at the Noor Mahal palace.[22] In 1901, the population of the city was 18,546.[18]
At the outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939, Bahawalpur's Nawab was the first ruler of a princely state to offer his full support and resources of the state towards thecrown's war efforts.[25]
British Princely states were given the option to join either Pakistan orIndia uponBritish withdrawal from the Sub-Continent in August 1947. The city and the princely state of Bahawalpur acceded to Pakistan on 7 October 1947, under NawabSadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V Bahadur.[26] Following independence, the city's minorityHindu andSikh communitiesmigrated to Indiaen masse, whileMuslim refugees from India settled in the city and the surrounding region.
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the sixthpresident of Pakistan, died in an aircraft crash on 17 August 1988 in Bahawalpur near the Sutlej River after departing from theBahawalpur Airport. Zia's close assistantAkhtar Abdur Rehman, American diplomatArnold Lewis Raphel and 27 others also died in the crash.[27]
There are 6 tehsils in District Bahawalpur, with 109union councils, 714 villages, and 5municipal committees.
Bahawalpur lies some 117 metres or 384 feet above sea level. The climate is dry; according to theKöppen-Geiger system, it is classified assemi arid (BSh). The rainfall is around 289 millimetres or 11.4 inches per year.[28] The average annual temperature is 25.7 °C or 78.3 °F.
The main crops for which Bahawalpur is recognised arecotton,sugarcane,wheat,sunflower seeds,rape/mustard seed andrice. Bahawalpurmangoes, citrus,dates andguavas are some of the fruits exported out of the country. Vegetables includeonions,tomatoes,cauliflower,potatoes andcarrots. Being an expanding industrial city, the government has revolutionised and liberalised various markets allowing the caustic soda, cotton ginning and pressing, flour mills, fruit juices, general engineering, iron and steel re-rolling mills, looms, oil mills, poultry feed, sugar, textile spinning, textile weaving, vegetable ghee and cooking oil industries to flourish.[29] Sheep and cattle are raised for export of wool and hides.
Bahawalpur is famous for its carpets, embroidery, and pottery. The Punjab government has set up a Craft Development Centre from where handicrafts can be purchased. These handicrafts are mostly manufactured in the Cholistan area.[30] Following is the list of some of the mementos manufactured in the city:
According to the2017 Census of Pakistan, the city's population was recorded as having risen to 762,111 from 408,395 in 1998.[6]
As per the2017 Census of Pakistan, the major tongue of the city is theSaraiki language, which attained plurality with 59%. This is followed by thePunjabi language at 22%, however thePunjabic dialects combined make up 81% of the city.Urdu is spoken by 17% of the population.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 40,000 | — |
| 1951 | 42,000 | +5.0% |
| 1961 | 84,000 | +100.0% |
| 1972 | 134,000 | +59.5% |
| 1981 | 180,000 | +34.3% |
| 1998 | 408,395 | +126.9% |
| 2017 | 762,111 | +86.6% |
Bahawalpur emerged as a centre ofChishti Sufism following the establishment of akhanqa by Noor Muhammad Muharvi in the mid-18th century.[31] Most residents are Muslims with a small minority beingHindus andChristians. There are about 2000 Christian families with one church,St. Dominic's Church built in 1962 by theGovernment of Punjab (the Dominican Convent School for girls and St. Dominican's Middle School for Boys were also built under the same project). Father Zafar Iqbal was the firstParish priest of the church until his death on 19 February 2009.[32]
| Religious group | 1881[34][35]: 520 [36]: 250 | 1891[37]: 68 [38] | 1901[39]: 44 [40]: 26 | 1911[41]: 23 [42]: 19 | 1921[43]: 25 [44]: 21 | 1931[45]: 26 | 1941[33]: 32 | 2017[46] | 2023[47] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | |
Islam | 7,459 | 54.7% | 11,109 | 59.36% | 11,161 | 60.18% | 11,395 | 61.88% | 12,042 | 65.11% | 13,735 | 65.58% | 28,946 | 72.34% | 776,135 | 98.24% | 932,809 | 98.19% |
Hinduism [b] | 6,082 | 44.61% | 7,450 | 39.81% | 7,236 | 39.02% | 6,879 | 37.36% | 6,363 | 34.41% | 7,166 | 34.22% | 10,836 | 27.08% | 2,018 | 0.26% | 2,010 | 0.21% |
Jainism | 48 | 0.35% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | — | — | — | — |
Sikhism | 43 | 0.32% | 147 | 0.79% | 135 | 0.73% | 126 | 0.68% | 75 | 0.41% | 29 | 0.14% | 208 | 0.52% | — | — | 20 | 0% |
Christianity | — | — | 10 | 0.05% | 14 | 0.08% | 14 | 0.08% | 14 | 0.08% | 12 | 0.06% | 25 | 0.06% | 11,615 | 1.47% | 14,918 | 1.57% |
Zoroastrianism | — | — | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 0% | — | — | — | — | 2 | 0% |
Ahmadiyya | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 265 | 0.03% | 100 | 0.01% |
| Others | 3 | 0.02% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 31 | 0% | 110 | 0.01% |
| Total population | 13,635 | 100% | 18,716 | 100% | 18,546 | 100% | 18,414 | 100% | 18,494 | 100% | 20,943 | 100% | 40,015 | 100% | 790,064 | 100% | 949,969 | 100% |
Bahawalpur was announced as one of six cities in Punjab whose security would be improved by thePunjab Safe Cities Authority. 5.6 billion Rupees were allocated for the project,[48] for the city to be modeled along the lines of the Lahore Safe City project in which 8,000CCTV cameras were installed throughout the city at a cost of 12 billion rupees to record and send images to the Integrated Command and Control Centres.[49]
TheBahawalpur Museum, established in 1976, is a museum of archaeology, art, heritage, modern history, and religion. It comes under the control of the Bahawalpur district government.[50] The current director of the museum is Hussain Ahmed Madni. It has eight galleries:
TheBahawalpur Zoo, established in 1942, is a 25-acre (10 ha) zoological garden. It is managed by the Government of Pakistan.[51]
The zoo has occasionally bred and supplied wild cats, such as Asiatic lions and Bengal tigers, to other zoos in the country. It also has an aquarium and zoological museum with stuffed birds, reptiles, and mammals. The Bahawalpur Zoo is the fourth biggest zoo in Pakistan, afterLahore Zoo,Karachi Zoo andIslamabad Zoo.
Lal Suhanra is a national park in Pakistan. The park itself is situated some 35 kilometres east of Bahawalpur. It is one of South Asia's largest national parks and is a UNESCO declared Biosphere Reserve. Lal Sohanra is notable for the diversity of its landscape, which includes desert, forest, and wetland ecosystems.[52]
Bahawalpur'sSadiq Egerton College was founded in 1886.[18] The first university,Islamia University was founded asJamia Abbasia in 1925. The city'sQuaid-e-Azam Medical College was founded in 1971. The District has an overall literacy rate of 48% with a total of 1662 schools and 24 colleges.[53]
Local transportation vehicles include buses, cars, motorbikes, and rickshaws.
Pakistan's longest national highway,N-5, also passes through the city, connecting Bahawalpur toKarachi andLahore.[54]
The railway connects Bahawalpur with the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Jhang, Rahim Yar Khan, Nawabshah, Attock, Sibi, Khanewal, Gujrat, Rohri, Jacobabad, and Nowshera.[54]
Bahawal Stadium or (formerly) The Bahawalpur Dring Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the city. It hosted a sole international match, atest match between Pakistan and India on 15 and 18 January 1955.[55]Motiullah hockey stadium is in theBahawal Stadium and is used for various national and international hockey tournaments in the country. Aside from the cricket ground, it has a gym and a pool facility for citizens. There are also tennis courts, under the administration of the Bahawalpur Tennis Club, and a 2-kilometre jogging track around the football ground.
Formerly, it was the capital of the Bahāwalpūr state, which was founded by the Dāʾūdpota family of Sind. The town itself was founded by the second ruler of the dynasty, Muḥammad Bahāwal Ḵh̲ān, in 1748.
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Bahawalpur travel guide from WikivoyageNeighbourhoods ofBahawalpur | ||
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Administrations:Bahawalpur Division andBahawalpur District | ||
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Website:Bahawalpur District atNRB | ||
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