West Punjab ‎لہندا پنجاب مغربی پنجاب
Former province of Pakistan
1947–1955
Province of West Punjab in Pakistan
Capital	Lahore
Demonym	Punjabi
Area
• 1947–1955	159,344 km2 (61,523 sq mi)
Government
• Type	Self-governing province subject to the central government
Governor
• 1947–1949	Francis Mudie
• 1949–1951	Abdur Rab Nishtar
• 1951–1953	I. I. Chundrigar
• 1953–1954	Mian Aminuddin
• 1954	Habib Rahimtoola
• 1954–1955	Mian Mushtaq Ahmed
Chief Minister
• 1947–1949	Iftikhar Hussain Khan
• 1951–1953	Mumtaz Daultana
• 1953–1955	Feroz Khan Noon
• 1955	Abdul Hamid Khan
Historical era	Cold War
• Established	14 August 1947
• Disestablished	14 October 1955
Political subdivisions	Lahore Division Sargodha Division Multan Division Rawalpindi Division
Preceded by Succeeded by British Punjab West Pakistan
Today part of	Pakistan Punjab Islamabad Capital Territory
Government of Punjab

This article is part of the series
Former administrative units of Pakistan
Original provinces Baluchistan East Bengal Federal Capital Territory Federally Administered Tribal Areas North-West Frontier Province Sind West Punjab
Princely states Amb Bahawalpur Chitral Dir Hunza Kalat Khairpur Kharan Las Bela Makran Nagar Phulra Swat
One-unit provinces East Pakistan West Pakistan
Other subdivisions Gilgit Agency Trans-Karakoram Tract
v t e

West Punjab (Punjabi: ‎لہندا پنجاب‎; Urdu: مغربی پنجاب) was a province in the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955. It was established from the western-half of British Punjab, following the independence of Pakistan. The province covered an area of 159,344 km sq (61523 sq mi), including much of the current Punjab province and the Islamabad Capital Territory, but excluding the former Princely state of Bahawalpur. Lahore, being the largest city and the cultural centre, served as the capital of the province. The province was composed of four divisions (Lahore, Sargodha, Multan and Rawalpindi) and was bordered by the state of Bahawalpur to the south-east, the province of Baluchistan to the south-west and Sind to the south, North-West Frontier Province to the north-west, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the north. It shared International border with Indian state of East Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir to the north-east. It was dissolved and merged into West Pakistan upon creation of One Unit Scheme, in 1955.

History

The creation of Pakistan in 1947 led to the division of the Punjab Province of British India into two new provinces. The largely Sikh and Hindu East Punjab became part of the new nation of India while the largely Muslim West Punjab became part of the new nation of the Dominion of Pakistan. The name of the province was shortened to Punjab in 1950. West Punjab was merged into the province of West Pakistan in 1955 under the One Unit policy announced by Prime Minister Chaudhary Muhammad Ali. When that province was dissolved, the area of the former province of West Punjab was combined with the former state of Bahawalpur to form a new Punjab Province.

Government

The offices of Governor of West Punjab and Chief Minister of West Punjab lasted from 15 August 1947, until 14 October 1955. The first Governor was Sir Francis Mudie with Iftikhar Hussain Khan as the first Chief Minister. Both offices were abolished in 1955, when the province of West Pakistan was created. The last Governor of West Punjab, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, became the first Governor of West Pakistan.

Demographics

Religion

At Independence there was a Muslim majority in West Punjab with a significant Hindu and Sikh minority. Nearly all of these minorities left West Punjab for India, to be replaced by large numbers of Muslims fleeing from the opposite direction.

Religion in the Districts & Princely States of West Punjab, Pakistan region (1941)^{[2]: 42 [a]}

District/ Princely State	Islam		Hinduism [b]		Sikhism		Christianity		Jainism		Others[c]		Total
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Lahore District	1,027,772	60.62%	284,689	16.79%	310,646	18.32%	70,147	4.14%	1,951	0.12%	170	0.01%	1,695,375	100%
Multan District	1,157,911	78.01%	249,872	16.83%	61,628	4.15%	14,290	0.96%	552	0.04%	80	0.01%	1,484,333	100%
Lyallpur District	877,518	62.85%	204,059	14.61%	262,737	18.82%	51,948	3.72%	35	0%	8	0%	1,396,305	100%
Bahawalpur State	1,098,814	81.93%	174,408	13%	46,945	3.5%	3,048	0.23%	351	0.03%	17,643	1.32%	1,341,209	100%
Montgomery District	918,564	69.11%	210,966	15.87%	175,064	13.17%	24,432	1.84%	49	0%	28	0%	1,329,103	100%
Sialkot District	739,218	62.09%	231,319	19.43%	139,409	11.71%	75,831	6.37%	3,250	0.27%	1,470	0.12%	1,190,497	100%
Gujrat District	945,609	85.58%	84,643	7.66%	70,233	6.36%	4,449	0.4%	10	0%	8	0%	1,104,952	100%
Shahpur District	835,918	83.68%	102,172	10.23%	48,046	4.81%	12,770	1.28%	13	0%	2	0%	998,921	100%
Gujranwala District	642,706	70.45%	108,115	11.85%	99,139	10.87%	60,829	6.67%	1,445	0.16%	0	0%	912,234	100%
Sheikhupura District	542,344	63.62%	89,182	10.46%	160,706	18.85%	60,054	7.04%	221	0.03%	1	0%	852,508	100%
Jhang District	678,736	82.61%	129,889	15.81%	12,238	1.49%	763	0.09%	5	0%	0	0%	821,631	100%
Rawalpindi District	628,193	80%	82,478	10.5%	64,127	8.17%	9,014	1.15%	1,337	0.17%	82	0.01%	785,231	100%
Muzaffargarh District	616,074	86.42%	90,643	12.72%	5,882	0.83%	227	0.03%	0	0%	23	0%	712,849	100%
Attock District	611,128	90.42%	43,209	6.39%	20,120	2.98%	1,392	0.21%	13	0%	13	0%	675,875	100%
Jhelum District	563,033	89.42%	40,888	6.49%	24,680	3.92%	893	0.14%	159	0.03%	5	0%	629,658	100%
Dera Ghazi Khan District	512,678	88.19%	67,407	11.59%	1,072	0.18%	87	0.01%	106	0.02%	0	0%	581,350	100%
Mianwali District	436,260	86.16%	62,814	12.41%	6,865	1.36%	358	0.07%	23	0%	1	0%	506,321	100%
Shakargarh Tehsil[d]	149,600	51.32%	116,553	39.98%	20,573	7.06%	4,779	1.64%	0	0%	0	0%	291,505	100%
Biloch Trans–Frontier Tract	40,084	99.6%	160	0.4%	2	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	40,246	100%
Total	13,022,160	75.06%	2,373,466	13.68%	1,530,112	8.82%	395,311	2.28%	9,520	0.05%	19,534	0.11%	17,350,103	100%
Note: Territory comprises the contemporary state of Punjab, Pakistan.

Language

The official language of West Punjab was Urdu but most of the population spoke Punjabi. The linguist George Abraham Grierson in his multi volume Linguistic Survey of India (1904–1928) considered the various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken in North, West, and South of Lahore in what is now Pakistani Punjab, as constituting instead a distinct language from Punjabi. (The local dialect of Lahore is the Majhi dialect of Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.) Grierson proposed to name this putative language "Lahnda", and he dubbed as "Southern Lahnda" the coherent dialect cluster now known as Saraiki spoken in Multan Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur division and "North Lahnda" now known as Potwari spoken in Rawalpindi division and "Western Lahnda" now known as Hindko spoken in the regions bordering Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Contemporary usage

The term is often used to refer to the Pakistani Punjab.^[3]