Dera Ghazi Khan (, Punjabi: ) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

. Its administrative capital is

Dera Ghazi Khan Dera Ghazi Khan, abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 16th most-populous city in Punjab and List of most p ...

. The district lies to the west of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

. The

Sulaiman Mountains The Sulaiman Mountains, also known as Kōh-e Sulaymān, Kasē Ghrūna Da Suleiman Ghruna (Pashto: د كسې غرونه ، د سلیمان غرونه; "Mountains of Qaes/Kasi and Solomon") ( Balochi:; "Mountains of Solomon") are a north–south ex ...

rise to a height of in the north of the district. Popular tourist destinations are Fort Munro, Yakbai Hill station and Mubarki Top.

Administration

The district is divided into two

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

s which are divided into a total of sixty Union Councils:

History

The region around Dera Ghazi Khan was inhabited by

Mallian The Mallian campaign was conducted by Alexander the Great from November 326 to February 325 BC, against the Mallians of the Punjab. Alexander was defining the eastern limit of his power by marching down-river along the Hydaspes to the Acesines ...

people in late antiquity. Then it was part of the wider Multan region. Buddhist artifacts dating to the 1st to 3rd centuries CE have been found in Dillu Roy in Kot Chhutta tehsil. The town of Dera Ghazi Khan was founded at the close of the 15th century and named after Nawab Ghazi Khan Mirani, son of Nawab Haji Khan Mirani, the city was founded when Shah Hussain of the

Langah Sultanate The Langah Sultanate was a late medieval sultanate based in the Punjab region in the western Indian subcontinent between the 15th and 16th centuries. It was the dominant power of the lower Doab tract with Multan at its centre. The Langah Sult ...

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

invited the Baloch people to settle the region. Together with two other ''Deras'' i.e. settlements,

Dera Ismail Khan Dera Ismail Khan (; Urdu and , ), abbreviated as D.I. Khan, is a city and capital of Dera Ismail Khan District, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 10th largest city of Pakistan and third or fourth largest in the province of Khy ...

and Dera Fateh Khan, it gave its name to

Derajat Derajat (Urdu: , the plural of the word 'dera' ) is a historical and cultural region in central Pakistan, bounded by the Indus River to the east and the Sulaiman Mountains to the west. It is located in the area where the provinces of Punjab, Paki ...

eventually came into the possession of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

after the Sikh War in 1849 and was divided into two districts: Dera Ghazi Khan and

. Dera Ghazi Khan district was annexed by the British from its former

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

rulers after the

Second Anglo-Sikh War The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company which took place from 1848 to 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab region, Punjab and what sub ...

of 1848–1849. After the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

, many of the city's

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

residents settled in Derawal Nagar colony of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The district of

Rajanpur Rajanpur is a city and the headquarters of Rajanpur District in the far southwestern part of Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab, Pakistan. The district lies entirely west of the Indus River. History Rajanpur was founded by Sheikh Rajan Shah, the Makhdoom ...

was later carved out of the Dera Ghazi Khan district. Based on the surveys of 2004–2005, Dera Ghazi Khan district is considered one of the 20 poorest districts of Pakistan with about 51% of its population living under the poverty line.

Demographics

As of the 2023 census, residual Dera Ghazi Khan district has 292,658 households and a population of 2,348,245. The district has a sex ratio of 100.71 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 43.98%: 47.78% for males and 35.64% for females. 797,634 (34.06% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 649,290 (27.65%) live in urban areas.

Religion

As per the 2023 census, the vast majority of the population was Muslim and made up nearly the entire population with 99.62%. Christians made up the largest minority (0.30%), followed by Ahmadis (0.07%) with Hindus and Sikhs making up the rest.

Languages

At the time of the 2023 census, 87.90% of the population spoke Saraiki, 7.68% Balochi and 3.40%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

as their first language.

Notable people

Farooq Leghari Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari (; 29 May 194020 October 2010) was a Pakistani politician who served as the eighth president of Pakistan from 14 November 1993 until resigning on 2 December 1997. He was the first Baloch to be elected as President. ...

, former

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Usman Buzdar Sardar Usman Ahmed Khan Buzdar (; born 1 May 1969) is a Pakistani politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan, Chief Minister of Punjab from 20 August 2018 to 30 April 2022. Buzdar was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab fro ...

, former Chief Minister of Punjab

References

External links

{{Coord, 29, 50, N, 70, 30, E, region:PK_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Districts of Punjab, Pakistan Derajat