Ghotki District

ضِلعو گھوٽڪي
گھوٽڪي
District
Ghotki District

Ghotki is located in the north east of Sindh.
Coordinates: 27°49′N 69°39′E / 27.817°N 69.650°E / 27.817; 69.650Coordinates: 27°49′N 69°39′E / 27.817°N 69.650°E / 27.817; 69.650
Country Pakistan
Province Sindh
Capital Ghotki City
Population 970,550
Time zone PST (UTC+5)
Website www.ghotkidistrict.com

Ghotki District (Sindhi, Sindhi: ضِلعو گھوٽڪي‎) is a district in Pakistan, located in the Sindh province. Its capital city is Ghotki City. According to the 1998 census, the district had a population of 970,550. Of these residents, 158,500 (16.33%) lived in urban areas, and 812,050 (83.67%) lived in rural areas.[1]

Administration

The Ghotki district is administratively subdivided into the following Tehsils:

Khambhra city

Location

The Ghotki District is a border district between the northern Sindh province of Pakistan and Punjab, Pakistan.

Industry and Economics

Ghotki is an industrial area in the Sindh province. Local companies based in Ghotki include OGDCL, Engro Fertilizers, Fauji fo Fertilizers (formerly Pak Saudi Fertilizer), TNB Liberty Power Plant, EngroPowergen PowerPlant, and Dosan Power Plant. Ghotki also has three gas fields: the Mari Gas Field, Qadirpur Gas Field, and Rehmat Gas Field.

Cotton is one of the district's major crops, with forty cotton-ginning factories in Ghotki. Another valuable crop is sugar cane. Four sugar mills are located in the Ghotki District: JDW Sugar Mills-3, SGM Sugar Mills, Daherki Sugar Mills, and Reti Sugar Mills.

The region is also famous for its mangoes, vegetables, and abundance of date trees.

History

Ghotki was founded by an ambassador general of Raja Ibn Selaj Birhman (a relative of Raja Dahir of Sindh) in 637 ACE (the 15th year of Hijra). It was named after Hath Sam, who set up a military camp in the area after defeating the Muslim Army of Arabia. The camp later assumed the shape of a village in 639 ACE (17th Shaban in the 17th year of Hijra), when people of different tribes went there to settle. Two years later, the people deserted this village and it again became rural and uninhabited. In the year 695 ACE, fishermen settled there and named the village "Miani," but when the river changed its course the village was abandoned once more.

In 712 ACE, Mohammad Bin Qasim, a Muslim military commander, defeated Raja Dahir and conquered the Sindh. Regardless, Ghot Ibn Samed Ibn Dahar, a Hindu born to one of Raja Dahir's sons, settled in the area. Ghot voluntarily and happily accepted Islam from the Arabs. According to Shariat-e-Mohammadi, Ghot married a Muslim named Emna. They had a baby boy, Tameer, from whom the Ghota tribe came into being. Arabs awarded many jagirs (grants of money and land) to the Ghotas and named this village "Dharwali" to honor their grandfather.

Subsequently, as the Ghotas grew in number and developed culturally, the name of the village was changed from Dharwali to Loh-e-Saheban. This occurred after a saint, Syed Mubarak Shah Jillani Baghdadi, came from Baghdad, married a girl of the Dhareja family, and permanently settled there. A shrine to the saint was built at a village named Adalpur, and many people continue today to pay homage to the saint by visiting his grave.

After the British conquest of Sindh province in 1847, the British awarded huge blocks of irrigated, fertile land to the Ghotta tribal chieftains in return for their loyalty. Gradually, the town's name changed into Ghotki ("of Ghottas").

A well-known Muslim tribe, the Arain (initially known as Areehai[2]), came from the ancient city of Jericho to settle in Ghotki. The Arains are the descendants of those Umayyad Arab soldiers who accompanied Muhammad Bin Qasim in his conquest of Sindh. According to the order of the new caliph, Caliph Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, the army was supposed to stay in Sindh or in other parts of South Asia. Accordingly, the remaining Arab Umayyad soldiers were permanently settled around the Ghotki area.

Today, there are Sindhi-speaking Arains in Ghotki who descended from the area's ancient inhabitants, as far back as the days of Muhammad Bin Qadim. Punjabi Arains (named after Punjab), who speak Punjabi, have been settled in the Ghotki District since the 1940s.[3]

Religion

Per the 1998 census of Pakistan,[4] the most common religions in the Ghotki District are:

Also according to the census, the district's Hindus, Christians, and Urdu-speaking Muslims are mainly concentrated in the urban areas.

Languages

The most common languages spoken in the Ghotki District are:

Saraiki Region of Sindh and Balochistan

Populated Places

Cities, towns, villages, and industrial areas where people live and work include:

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13878560-who-are-arains-urdu---in-pakistan-and-where-they-come-from
  3. ↑ http://www.sindh.gov.pk/tenders/transfer.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/other/pocket_book2006/2.pdf
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