Punjab – A Province Of Pakistan

The Punjab province of Pakistan is by far the country's most populous and prosperous region and is home to the Punjabis and various other groups. Neighbouring areas are Sindh to the south, Balochistan and the Pakhtoonkhwa to the west, Azad Kashmir and Islamabad to the north, and India to the east. The main languages are the Punjabi, Urdu and Saraiki. The provincial capital is Lahore. The name Punjab literally translates from the Persian words Pañj (پنج) , meaning Five, and Āb (آب) meaning Water. Thus Punjab can be translated as (the) Five Waters - and hence the Land of the Five Rivers, referring to the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej these five rivers are all the tributaries of the Indus River. The province was founded in its current form in May 1972.
Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province at 205,344 km² (79,284 square miles). The provincial level-capital and main city of the Punjab is Lahore which has been the historical capital of the region. Other important cities include Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujrat and Rawalpindi. The province along is home to five rivers: the Indus, Beas, Sutlej, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi. Nearly 60% of Pakistan's population lives in the Punjab. It is the nation's only province that touches Balochistan, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Azad Kashmir, and contains the federal enclave of the national capital city at Islamabad. This geographical position and a large multi-ethnic population strongly influence Punjab's outlook on National affairs and induces in Punjab a keen awareness of the problems of the Pakistan's other important provinces and territories. In the acronym P-A-K-I-S-T-A-N, the P is for PUNJAB.
The province is a mainly a fertile region along the river valleys, while sparse deserts can be found near the border with India and Balochistan. The region contains the Thar and Cholistan deserts. The Indus River and its many tributaries traverse the Punjab from north to south. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well.
Climate
Most areas in Punjab experience fairly cool winters, often accompanied by rain. By mid-February the temperature begins to rise; springtime weather continues until mid-April, when the summer heat sets in.
The onset of the southwest monsoon is anticipated to reach Punjab by May, but since the early 1970s the weather pattern has been irregular. The spring monsoon has either skipped over the area or has caused it to rain so hard that floods have resulted. June and July are oppressively hot. Although official estimates rarely place the temperature above 46°C, newspaper sources claim that it reaches 51°C and regularly carry reports about people who have succumbed to the heat. Heat records were broken in Multan in June 1993, when the mercury was reported to have risen to 54°C. In August the oppressive heat is punctuated by the rainy season, referred to as barsat, which brings relief in its wake. The hardest part of the summer is then over, but cooler weather does not come until late October.

Recently the province experienced one of the coldest winters in the last 70 years. Experts are suggesting that this is due to global climate change.
The population of the province is estimated to be 86,084,000 in 2005 and is home to over half the population of Pakistan. The major language spoken in the Punjab is Punjabi (which is written in a Perso-Arabic script ) and Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group. The language is not given any official recognition in the Constitution of Pakistan. Punjabis themselves are a heterogeneous group comprising different tribes and communities, although the different castes in Pakistani Punjab has more to do with traditional occupations such as blacksmiths or artisans as opposed to rigid social stratifications.
The most important tribes within Punjab include the Muslim Rajputs, the Gakhars, the Gujjars, the Jats, the Arain, the Punjabi Shaikhs and the Syeds. Other smaller tribes are the Awans, Rawns and the Maliks. In addition, there is a significant shift towards the usage of Urdu by the educated classes of the province. Other smaller ethnic groups in the province include the Siraiki, Hindko, Pakhtuns, the Baloch, Kashmiris, Sindhis, and Muhajirs. Three decades of bloodshed in neighbouring Afghanistan have brought a large number of Afghan refugees to the province.
The population of Punjab is over 99% Muslim with a Sunni majority and Shia minority. There are small non-Muslims groups of Zorastrians, Bahá'ís, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus. The Ismaili and Ahmediya communities are considered non-Muslim by some.


The dialects spoken in different regions of the land have a common vocabulary and a shared heritage. The shared heritage also extends to a common faith, Islam. The people of Punjab have also a shared spiritual experience, which has been disseminated by Tassawwaf and can be witnessed on the occasion of the remembrance-fairs held on the Urs of Sufi Saints.
It is now generally accepted that the area of the Indus Valley Civilization has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years by the same general population stock as is presently found in the area of Punjab. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab was the city of Harrapa. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of Pakistan.
Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Invaded by the Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Scythians, Turks, and Afghans, Punjab witnessed centuries of bitter bloodshed. Its legacy is a unique culture that combines Persian, Central Asian, Islamic and British elements.
The city of Taxila, reputed to house the oldest university in the world, Takshashila University, was established by the great Vedic thinker and politician Chanakya. Taxila was a great center of learning and intellectual discussion during the Maurya Empire. It is a UN World Heritage site, and revered for its archaeological and religious history.
Unique to Pakistani Punjab was that this area was briefly conquered into various central Asian, Greek and Persian empires: after the bloody victories of Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni and Tamerlane. These were periods of contact between this region of Pakistan and the Persian Empire and all the way to Greece. In later centuries, when Persian was the language of the Mughal government, Persian architecture, poetry, art and music was an integral part of the region's culture. The official language of Punjab remained Persian until the arrival of the British in the mid 19th century, where it was finally abolished and the administrative language was changed over to English.


The Mughals controlled the region from 1524 until 1739 and would also lavish the province with building projects such as the Shalimar Gardens and the Badshahi Mosque, both situated in Lahore. Muslim soldiers, traders, architects, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world and settled in the Punjab. Following the decline of the Mughals, the Shah of Iran and founder of the Afsharid dynasty in Persia, Nader Shah crossed the Indus and sacked the province in 1739. Following this terrible visitation, the Afghan conqueror Ahmad Shah Durrani annexed the Punjab into his Durrani Empire from 1747 until 1762.
The founder of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtoon, is believed to be born in the city of Multan. After cementing his authority over various Afghan tribes, he went about to establish the first united Afghan Kingdom that during its greatest extent included modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and north eastern Iran. The Punjab was a cultural reservoir for the Afghans, and many where attracted to its lush fertile lands. It has been said that with the loss of the breadbasket regions of the Punjab and Sindh, Afghanistan has never been able to achieve a stable state ever since. Many ethnic Afghan or Pashtun tribes continue to live in Pakistan's Punjab province such as the Gardezis, Niazis, Lodhis, the Kakazai, and the Barakzai to name a few.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the religion of Sikhism was born, and during the Mughal period gradually emerged as a formidable military force until subjugated and assimilated by the later expanding British Empire. After fighting Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Sikhs wrested control of the Punjab from his descendants and ruled in a confederacy, which later became the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A denizen of the city of Gujranwala, the capital of Ranjit Singh's kingdom was Lahore.
The Maharaja's death in the summer of 1839 brought political chaos and the subsequent battles of succession and the bloody infighting between the factions at court weakened the state. Relationships with neighbouring British territories then broke down, starting the First Anglo-Sikh War; this led to a British official being resident in Lahore and the annexation of territory south of the Satluj to British India.
In 1947 the Punjab province of British Raj voted to become part of Pakistan.
Since the 1950s, Punjab industrialized rapidly. New factories came up in Lahore, Multan, Sialkot. In the 1960s the new city of Islamabad was built near Rawalpindi.
Agriculture continues to be the largest sector of Punjab's economy. The province is the breadbasket of Pakistan as well as home to the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, the Punjabis.
Punjab witnessed major battles between the armies of India and Pakistan in the wars of 1965 and 1971. Since the 1990s Punjab hosted several key sites of Pakistan's nuclear program such as Kahuta. It also hosts major military bases such as at Sargodha and Rawalpindi. The peace process between India and Pakistan, which began in earnest in 2004, has helped pacify the situation. Trade and people-to-people contacts through the Wagah border are now starting to become common. Indian Sikh pilgrims visit holy sites such as Nankana Sahib.
Starting in the 1980s large numbers of Punjabis migrated to the Middle East, Britain, Spain, Canada and the United States for economic opportunties. Business and cultural ties between the United States and Punjab are growing.

Despite lack of a coastline, Punjab is the most industrialized province of Pakistan; its manufacturing industries produce textiles, sports goods, machinery, electrical appliances, surgical instruments, metals, bicycles and rickshaws, floor coverings, and processed foods. In 2003, the province manufactured 90% of the paper and paper boards, 71% of the fertilizers, 65% of the sugar and 40% of the cement of Pakistan.

Despite its dry climate, extensive irrigation makes it a rich agricultural region. Its canal-irrigation system established by the British is the largest in the world. Wheat and cotton are the largest crops. Other crops include rice, sugarcane, millet, corn, oilseeds, pulses, fruits, and vegetables. Livestock and poultry production are also important. Despite past animosities, the rural masses in Punjab's farms continue to use the Hindu calendar for planting and harvesting.

Punjab contributes about 68% to annual food grain production in the country. 51 million acres (210,000 km²) is cultivated and another 9.05 million acres (36,600 km²) are lying as cultivable waste in different parts of the province.

Cotton and rice are important crops. They are the cash crops that contribute substantially to the national exchequer. Attaining self-sufficiency in agriculture has shifted the focus of the strategies towards small and medium farming, stress on barani areas, farms-to-market roads, electrification for tube-wells and control of water logging and salinity.
Punjab has also more than 48 thousand industrial units. The small and cottage industries are in abundance. There are 39,033 small and cottage industrial units. The number of textile units is 11,820. The ginning industries are 6,778. There are 6,355 units for processing of agricultural raw materials including food and feed industries.
Lahore and Gujranwala Divisions have the largest concentration of small light engineering units. The district of Sialkot excels in sports goods, surgical instruments and cutlery goods.
Punjab is also a mineral rich province with extensive mineral deposits of coal, rock salt, dolomite, gypsum, and silica-sand. The Punjab Mineral Development Corporation is running over a dozen economically viable projects.
The literacy rate has increased greatly since independence. In 2003, over 53% of the population of the province was estimated to be literate by the Labour Force Survey.

Punjab has been the cradle of civilization since times immemorial. The ruins of Harappa show an advanced urban culture that flourished over 5000 years ago. Taxila, another historic landmark also stands out as a proof of the achievements of the area in learning, arts and crafts in bygone ages.
The structure of a mosque is simple and it expresses openness. Calligraphic inscriptions from the Holy Qur’an decorate mosques and mausoleums in Punjab. The inscriptions on bricks and tiles of the mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam (1320 AD) at Multan are outstanding specimens of architectural calligraphy. The earliest existing building in South Asia with enamelled tile-work is the tomb of Shah Yusuf Gardezi (1150 AD) at Multan. A specimen of the sixteenth century tile-work at Lahore is the tomb of Sheikh Musa Ahangar, with its brilliant blue dome.
The culture of Punjab derives its basis from the institution of Sufi saints. The Sufi saints spread Islam and preached and lived the Muslim way of life. People have festivities to commemorate these traditions. The fairs and festivals of Punjab reflect the entire gamut of its folk life and cultural traditions. These mainly fall in following categories:
Classical music forms are an important part of the cultural wealth of the Punjab. The Muslim musicians have contributed a large number of ragas to the repository of classical music.
Among the Punjabi poets, the names of Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Baksh, and Waris Shah and folk singers like Inayat Hussain Bhatti and Tufail Niazi, Alam Lohar, Sain Marna, Mansoor Malangi, Allah Ditta Lunewala, Talib Hussain Dard, Attaullah Khan Esakhlvi, Gamoo Tahliwala, Mamzoo Gha-lla, Akbar Jat, Arif Lohar, Ahmad Nawaz Cheena and Hamid Ali Bela are well-known. In the composition of classical ragas, there are such masters as Malika-i-Mauseequi (Queen of Music) Roshan Ara Begum, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Salamat Ali Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. Alam Lohar has made significant contributions to folklore and Punjabi literature, by being a very influential Punjabi folk singer from 1930 until 1979.
For the popular taste however, light music, particularly Ghazals and folk songs, which have an appeal of their own, the names of Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Nur Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Farida Khanum, Roshen Ara Begum, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan are well-known. Folk songs and dances of the Punjab reflect a wide range of moods: the rains, sowing and harvesting seasons. Luddi, Bhangra and Sammi depict the joy of living. Love legends of Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiban, Sohni Mahenwal and Saiful Mulk are sung in different styles.

A newer generation of upper class Panjabis is re-affirming their maternal language and have begun requesting the government for official patronage not just of their language (Panjabi) but that of other major ethnic groups in Pakistan such as the Pashtuns, Balochi and Saraiki. Punjabis form the 40 to 45% of population of Pakistan.

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