Бахавалпур: История и Наследие Пакистанского Города

City in Punjab, Pakistan

Bahawalpur (/bəha:wəlpʌr/; Punjabi, Urdu: , romanized: Bahāwalpūr; ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is one of the ten largest cities of Pakistan and 6th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi family of Nawabs until 1955. The Nawabs left a rich architectural legacy, and Bahawalpur is known for its monuments dating from that period. The city lies at the edge of the Cholistan Desert, and serves as the gateway to the nearby Lal Suhanra National Park.

Bahawalpur was among the 584 princely states before the Partition of India.

Bahawalpur State was home to various ancient societies. The Bahawalpur region was part of Multan province of Mughal Empire in recent history. It contains ruins from the Indus Valley civilisation, as well as ancient Buddhist sites such as the nearby Patan minara. British archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham identified the Bahawalpur region as home of the Yaudheya kingdoms of the Mahābhārata. Prior to the establishment of Bahawalpur, Cholistan region's major city was Uch Sharif – a regional metropolitan centre between the 12th and 17th centuries that is renowned for its collection of historic shrines dedicated to Muslim mystics from the 12–15th centuries built in the region's vernacular style.

Bahawalpur was established in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal Khan I, after he migrated to the region around Uch from Shikarpur, Sindh. Bahawalpur replaced Derawar as the clan's capital city. The city initially flourished as a trading post on trade routes between Afghanistan and central India.

In 1785, the Durrani commander Sirdar Khan attacked Bahawalpur city and destroyed many of its buildings on behalf of Mian Abdul Nabi Kalhora of Sindh. Bahawalpur's ruling family, along with nobles from nearby Uch, were forced to take refuge in the Derawar Fort, where they successfully repulsed further attacks. Nawab Mohammad Bahawal Khan III signed a treaty with the British on 22 February 1833, guaranteeing the independence of the Nawab 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. The city's silk was noted to be of higher quality than silk works from Benares or Amritsar. Bahawalpur was constituted as a municipality in 1874. Bahalwapur's Nawab celebrated the Golden Jubillee of Queen Victoria in 1887 in a state function at the Noor Mahal palace.

British Princely states were given the option to join either Pakistan or India upon British withdrawal from the Sub Continent in August 1947. The city and the princely state of Bahawalpur acceded to Pakistan on 7 October 1947, under Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V Bahadur. Following independence, the city's minority Hindu and Sikh communities migrated to India en masse, while Muslim refugees from India settled in the city and the surrounding region.

There are 6 tehsils in District Bahawalpur, with 109 union councils, 714 villages, and 5 municipal committees.

Bahawalpur lies some above sea level. The climate is dry. Over the year, there is virtually no rainfall in Bahawalpur. According to the Köppen Geiger system, it is classified as semi arid (BSh). The average annual temperature is The rainfall is around per year.

The main crops for which Bahawalpur is recognised are cotton, sugarcane, wheat, sunflower seeds, rape/mustard seed and rice. Bahawalpur mangoes, citrus, dates and guavas are some of the fruits exported out of the country. Vegetables include onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. 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. Sheep and cattle are raised for export of wool and hides.

According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, the city's population was recorded as having risen to 762,111 from 408,395 in 1998. Most residents are Muslims with a small minority being Hindus and Christians. There are about 2000 Christian families with one church, St. Dominic's Church built in 1962 by the Government 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 first Parish priest of the church until his death on 19 February 2009. 1891 1941: Data for the entirety of the town of Bahawalpur, which included Bahawalpur Municipality.1891190119111921193119412017Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage) Islam 7,459 54.70 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 Hinduism 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 Jainism 48 0.35 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Sikhism 43 0.32 147 0.79 135 0.73 126 0.68 75 0.41 29 0.14 208 0.52 Christianity 10 0.05 14 0.08 14 0.08 14 0.08 12 0.06 25 0.06 11,615 1.47 Zoroastrianism 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 1 0.00 Ahmadiyya 265 0.03 Others 3 0.02 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 31 0.00 Total population 13,635 100.00 18,716 100.00 18,546 100.00 18,414 100.00 18,494 100.00 20,943 100.00 40,015 100.00 790,064 100.00

Bahawalpur was announced as one of six cities in Punjab whose security would be improved by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority. 5.6 billion Rupees were allocated for the project, for the city to be modeled along the lines of the Lahore Safe City project in which 8,000 CCTV 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.

The Bahawalpur Zoo, established in 1942, is a 25 acre (10 ha) zoological garden. It is managed by the Government of Pakistan. 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, after Lahore Zoo, Karachi Zoo and Islamabad Zoo.

Bahawalpur Railway Station is located in Bahawalpur city at an elevation of 117 metres. It is one of the major railway stations of Pakistan Railways on the Karachi Peshawar main line. The station is staffed and has advance and current reservation offices. In 2016, the Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique announced that PKR. 280 million will be spent on the construction of a Model Railway Station in Bahawalpur. The routes linked Bahawalpur to 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.

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.

Bahawalpur's Sadiq Egerton College was founded in 1886.

Local transportation vehicles include buses, cars, motorbikes, and rickshaws.

Pakistan's longest national highway, N 5, also passes through the city, connecting Bahawalpur to Karachi and Lahore.

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. Motiullah hockey stadium is in the Bahawal 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.