Sialkot District (Punjabi and Urdu: ضلع سیالکوٹ), is one of the districts of the Punjabprovince of Pakistan. It is located in the Majha region of Punjab, otherwise the northeast of the province. The city of Sialkot is the capital of the district. The Sialkot Cantonment was established in 1852.
Administration
The district is administratively divided into the following four tehsils (subdivisions), which contain a total of 122 Union Councils:[2][3]
The legendary history of the District is connected with Raja Salivahan, the reputed founder of the town of Sialkot, and his famous son Rasalu. Pasrur is also an ancient place. At an early date the District fell to the Rajas of Jammu, and under the Mughals formed the Rechna Doab sarkar of the Subah of Lahore. Under Shah Jahan the sarkar was entrusted to Ali Mardan Khan, the famous engineer, who dug a canal through it to bring water from the Chenab river to the imperial gardens in Lahore.
On the decline of the Mughal Empire Ranjit Singh Deo, a Rajput hill chief, extended his sway over the lowlands, owning a nominal allegiance to Delhi. In 1748 he transferred his allegiance to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who added Zafarwal and two other parganas to his fief. Before his death in 1773 Ranjit Deo had secured possession of the whole District, except the Sialkot town and its dependencies, which were held by a Pashtun family.[4]
During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the station was denuded of British troops; and the Native regiments which were left behind the rose, and, after sacking the jail, treasury, and courthouse, and massacring several of the European inhabitants, marched off towards Delhi, only to be destroyed by Nicholson at Trimmu Ghat. The rest of the Europeans took refuge in the fort, and on the morning after the departure of the rebels order was restored. The only events of interest in the subsequent history of the District are the plague riots that occurred at the villages of Shahzada and Sankhatra in 1901.[4]
Numerous mounds are scattered about the District, which marks the sites of ancient villages and towns. None of them, except that on which the Sialkot fort stood, has been excavated, but silver and copper utensils and coins have been dug up from time to time by villagers. Most of the coins are those of Indo-Bactrian kings. The excavations in Sialkot revealed the existence of some old baths, with hot-water pipes of solid masonry. The fort itself, of which very little now remains, is not more than 1,000 years old and is said to have been rebuilt by Shahab-ud-din Ghori at the end of the twelfth century.[4]
According to the 1901 census, the district had a population of 1,083,909 and contained 7 towns and 2,348 villages. The population at the previous three enumerations was: 1,004,695 (1868), 1,012,148 (1881) and 1,119,847 (1891). The population decreased between 1891 and 1901 by 3.2,[4] the decrease being greatest in the Raya tahsil and least in the Daska tahsil. The Chenab Colony was responsible for this fall in population, with no less than 103,000 persons having left to take land in the newly irrigated tracts.[5]
The district was subdivided into five tehsils, namely: Sialkot, Pasrur, Zafarwal, Raya and Daska, the headquarters of each being at the place from which it is named. The chief towns of the district were Sialkot, Daska, Jamki, Pasrur, Kila Sobha Singh, Zafarwal and Narowal.[5]
Tehsil
Area (sq mi)
Towns
Villages
Population (1901)
Population per sq mi
Population variation 1891–1901
Number of literate people
Sialkot
428
1
637
312,668
730.5
+3.2
12,101
Pasrur
394
2
443
193,746
491.7
−5.0
5,601
Sambrial
485
1
456
192,440
396.8
+10.4
5,586
Daska
360
2
332
206,148
572.6
−0.6
4,103
Total
1,991
7
2,348
1,083,909
544.4
−3.2
31,341
In 1930, the tehsils of Raya, Daska and Pasrur were split up and parts of these were amalgamated into Gujranwala District. In 1991, the tehsils of Narowal and Shakar Garh (which was tehsil Shankar Garh of Gurdaspur district before the independence of Pakistan in 1947) were split up and formed into the new Narowal District.
Sialkot is hot and humid during the summer and cold during the winter. June and July are the hottest months. The maximum temperature during winter may drop to −2 °C (28 °F). The land is generally plain and fertile. The average annual rainfall is about 1000 mm. Over 25.82% of the population of the district is urban.
At the time of the 2017 census, Sialkot district had 573,346 households and a population of 3,894,938. Sialkot had a sex ratio of 1027 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 77.90% - 80.38% for males and 75.55% for females. 1,144,535 (29.39%) lived in urban areas. 971,385 (24.94%) were under 10 years of age.[1] In 2023, the district had 671,589 households and a population of 4,499,394.[7]
Muslims are the majority community, while Christians (converted during the colonial period) are the principal minority. There are small Hindu and Ahmadi communities in the district. The Shivala Teja Singh temple is a historic Hindu temple in Sialkot.[8][9]
^ abcd"Sialkot District". Imperial Gazetteer2 of India, Volume 22, page 328 – Digital South Asia Library. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
^ ab"Sialkot District". Imperial Gazetteer2 of India, Volume 22, page 329 – Imperial Gazetteer of India – Digital South Asia Library. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
^1941 data is for Sialkot, Daska and Pasrur tehsils of Sialkot district, which roughly corresponds to present-day Sialkot district. Historic district borders may not be an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the historic Punjab Province region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases.
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Pakistan
Punjab
