Sahiwal ( Punjabi and ur, ), formerly known as Montgomery, is a city in

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

. It is the 21st largest city of Pakistan by population and the administrative capital of both

Sahiwal District Sahiwal District ( Punjabi and ur, ), formerly known as Montgomery district, is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. In 1998, it had a population of 1,843,194 people, 16.27% of which were in urban areas. Since 2008, Sahiwal District, ...

and

Sahiwal Division Sahiwal Division ( Punjabi, ur, ) is one of the nine Divisions of Punjab province, Pakistan. It was formed by merging parts of Lahore Division and Multan Division and took its name Sahiwal from the district and city of the same name, which ...

. Sahiwal is approximately 180 km from the major city

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

and 100 km from

Faisalabad Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...

and lies between

and

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

. The city lies in a densely populated region between the Sutlej and Ravi rivers. The principal crops are wheat, cotton, tobacco, legumes, potato and oil seeds. Cotton goods and lacquered woodwork are manufactured.

History

Following the Ummayad Arab conquest of Punjab cities of Uch and Multan, led by Muhammad bin Qasim. Arabs of Emirate of Multan ruled the region of Sahiwal for few centuries. Then Sahiwal remained part of Multan province of Mamluk dynasty. Sahiwal also remained associated with historic city of Depalpur. The modern day city of Sahiwal was founded in 1865 when a train station was built at the site of a small village on the Karachi-Lahore railway line. The site was named Montgomery for

Sir Robert Montgomery Sir Robert Montgomery GCSI, KCB (2 December 1809 – 28 December 1887), was a British administrator and civil servant in colonial India. He was Chief Commissioner of Oudh during the period of 1858 to 1859 and later served as Lieutenant Govern ...

, then lieutenant governor of the Punjab and it replaced

Gogera Gogera ( ur, ), is a town and union council of Okara District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located at 30°58'4N 73°18'24E with an altitude of 166 metres (547 feet) and lies to the north-west and away from the district capital - ...

as the capital of the recently created Montgomery district. Two years later in 1867, it was constituted a municipality. In 1914 construction began of the

Lower Bari Doab Canal The Lower Bari Doab Canal is a canal in Punjab, Pakistan. Part of the part of the second-largest irrigation system of the province, it serves approximately 275,000 farmsteads. It is located south-west of Lahore and runs alongside the River Ravi. ...

which now irrigates both the city and wider region. During the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947 the city, being part of Montgomery district, was allocated to Pakistan by the

Punjab Boundary Commission Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. This was on the basis of being a Muslim majority area, despite claims from the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

and

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

groups on the basis of greater property ownership and revenues paid to the state.

Climate

The climate of Sahiwal district is extreme, reaching 52 °C in summer, and down to 2 °C in winter. The soil of the district is very fertile. The average rainfall is about 2000 mm.

Education

New Campus Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal

Notable educational institutes of the city include: *

University of Sahiwal The University of Sahiwal ( ur, ) is a public university located in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan. History & overview In January 2005, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan (BZU) established a sub-campus in Sahiwal inaugurated by the then Gover ...

* COMSATS University, Sahiwal Campus *

Barani Institute of Sciences The Barani Institute of Sciences (Urdu: ), or BIS is a private institute having its campuses in Sahiwal and Burewala in Punjab, Pakistan. It is affiliated with Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. History Barani Instit ...

Sahiwal Medical College Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal (Urdu:, SLMC, established in 2010, is a public school of medicine located in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established to provide education in the Punjab region and especially in Sahiwal District. Old District ...

Quaid-e-Azam College of Engineering and Technology, Sahiwal The Quaid-e-Azam College Of Engineering and Technology (QCET) ( ur, ) is a private college located in Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan. It offers undergraduate engineering and engineering technology degree programs in affiliation with University of En ...

Punjab College of Science The Punjab Colleges (also known as The Punjab Group or PGC) is a group of colleges active in Punjab, Pakistan. It has its roots in a Commerce College set up by Mian Amer Mahmood. The chairman of PGC network is Mian Amer Mahmood. The Network la ...

The Superior College The Superior University, () is a private university in Lahore, Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab, Pakistan. Charter and Recognition Superior University is chartered by the Government of Punjab, Pakistan and recognized by the Higher Education Commiss ...

Army Public Schools & Colleges System Army Public Schools & Colleges System or APSACS is one of the largest educational institutions of Pakistan which provides education till intermediate. APSAC System operates in 18 regions across Pakistan, with supervision by 18 Regional Director ...

(APSCS) * Beaconhouse School System *

Bloomfield Hall School Bloomfield may refer to: People * Bloomfield (surname) Places Australia * Bloomfield, Queensland, a town and locality in the Shires of Cook and Douglas * Bloomfield River, in Queensland Canada * Bloomfield, Carleton County, New Brunswick * Bloom ...

* The City School *

Divisional Public School and College Divisional Public Schools and Colleges (DPS or DPSC), established in 1963, is a series of mega-schools at the division level in Punjab, Pakistan. The series consists of one of the largest institutions providing education at school level in Pakis ...

The Educators The Beaconhouse School System is a private school system mostly operating throughout Pakistan.Government Postgraduate College Sahiwal *

Government College of Technology Sahiwal A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, Executive (government), e ...

* Royal Computer Trainning Institute Sahiwal

Twin city

Sahiwal is twinned with the town of

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. Approximately eight per cent of town's population is of Asian origin, most of whom have links with Pakistan. The twinning arrangement was agreed between Rochdale and Sahiwal in 1998.

Notable people

* Mushtaq Ahmed, former test cricketer *

Majeed Amjad Majeed Amjad (Punjabi, ur, ) (29 June 1914 – 11 May 1974) was an Urdu poet from Pakistan. One newspaper described him as a "philosophical poet of depth and sensitivity". His ghazals have also been sung by various Pakistani singers. Personal ...

, Urdu poet *

Tariq Aziz Tariq Aziz ( ar, طارق عزيز , 28 April 1936 – 5 June 2015) was an Iraqi politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and a close advisor of President Saddam Hussein. Their association began in the 1950s wh ...

, television anchor *

Dildar Pervaiz Bhatti Dildar Pervaiz Bhatti (30 November 1946 – 30 October 1994) was a Pakistani television and a radio host, college professor and a TV program announcer.Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, Indian Army Officer *

Attash Durrani Attash Durrani ( ur, ; 22 January 1952 – 30 November 2018) was a Pakistani linguist, researcher, critic, author, educationist, and gemologist. He wrote more than 275 books and approximately 500 papers in Urdu and English. His main disciplines o ...

, Urdu writer and Scholar *

Manzoor Elahi Manzoor Elahi (Urdu:منظور الہی) (born 15 April 1963) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer. Considered a hard-hitting batsman and a medium-pacer bowler, Elahi appeared in six Test matches and 54 One Day Internationals for Pa ...

, former test cricketer *

Mehdi Hasan Mehdi Raza Hasan (born July 1979) is a British-American political journalist, broadcaster and author of Indian descent. Hasan has been the host of ''The Mehdi Hasan Show'' on Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC since February 2021. In 2 ...

, journalist and historian *

Rana Mohammad Hanif Khan Rana Mohammad Hanif Khan (رانا محمد حنیف خان ) was a politician who served as the Finance minister of pakistan from 22 October 1974 to 28 March 1977. He was from the city of hichawatni, Sahiwal which is in the Punjab (Pakistan ...

, politician and former Finance Minister of Pakistan * Nazir Naji journalist and Urdu columnist for various media groups. * Emmanuel Neno, Christian author and translator * Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Sahar, Urdu Poet *

Nouraiz Shakoor Chaudhary Nouraiz Shakoor Khan (Urdu, pa, ) (born October 19, 1948) is a Pakistani politician from Sahiwal who has been a member of the Pakistan National Assembly three times in 1988, 1993 and 2002 elections respectively. Shakoor was a member o ...

, politician and former Federal minister *

Saieen Zahoor Saieen Zahoor Ahmed or Ali Saain Shafiu ( Punjabi: سائیں ظہور, born 1936) is a leading Punjabi Sufi musician from Pakistan. He has spent most of his life singing in Sufi shrines, and didn't produce a record until 2006, when he was nom ...

, Sufi musician

References

External links

*
NIMLS COLLEGE Sahiwal
* https://archive.org/details/MontgomerytoSahiwal {{Authority control Populated places in Sahiwal District Sahiwal District Populated places in Punjab, Pakistan