Sheikhupura

Sheikhupura District is a district of Punjab province, Pakistan. Sheikhupura is the headquarters of Sheikhupura District. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan, the district had a population of 3,321,029 of which 25.45% were urban.formerly Kot Dayal Das or Singhpuria , is an industrial city in the province of Punjab slightly northwest to Lahore in Pakistan. It is known for its historical places, and is commonly known locally as Qila Shaikhupura, because of the fort in the city, constructed by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The name Sheikhupura is derived from a nickname of Jahangir, who was known as Sheikhu by his father Akbar the Great. The city is the headquarters of Sheikhupura District and is approximately 35 km from Lahore. The original name of Virkgarh was renamed by Jahangir.The city was renamed Singhpuria in Sikh rule ,and had a large Sikh population prior to independence in 1947, Gurudwaras are seen throughout the city.Waris Shah was a Punjabi Sufi poet, best-known for his seminal work Heer Ranjha, based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha. Syed Waris Shah was born into a reputed Syed family in the village of Jandiala Sher Khan, Sheikhupura District, Punjab (now Pakistan) in or around 1706. The popular Hindi film lyricist Gulshan Bawra (Gulshan Kumar Mehta), was born here.

The history of Sheikhupura goes back to 100 BC. Historical research has established the fact that Sangla or Sakala was the capital of Punjab once, and it was here that Alexander the Great of Macedonia (known locally as Sikandar e Azam) fought one of his most serious battles of his career. Its name is spoken of, firstly in the pages of Tuzk-e-Jahangiri as Jahangirpura, after the name of Prince Salim Nur u Din Muhammad Jahangir. He changed the name from Virkgarh to Sheikhupura after converting the majority of the population to Islam. This area belongs to the Jats.Mughal Emperor Nor-u-Din Muhammad Jahangir laid the foundation of historical Sheikhupura. In 1607, Sheikhupura was constructed following an order of Jahangir. The father of Jahangir, Emperor Jalal-uddin Mohammad Akbar use to call him Sheikhu (a nick name). During Sikh rule the new city was named Singhpuria, previously was known as Jahangirabad.During the reign of Emperor Jahangir (1605 to 1627), Sheikhupura had the status of royal hunting ground. In Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, Jahangir wrote during the events in 1607:“ On the day of Tuesday, I reside in Jahangirpura, my hunting ground. According to my order, a Minar and a grave for my deer, Mansraj, were constructed here. ” Mughal Emperor Jahangir granted the estate of Sheikhupura to Syed Usman, the father of Shah Bilal, a religious preceptor of the line of Qadiriyyah.Over the whole district, the period between the decline of the Mughal Empire after the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and the rise of Sikh confederacies was one of utter confusion and anarchy. The successive shocks of invasion from the northwest, and the devastation caused again and again by the invading armies of Nadir Shah.Nader Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali (1724-1773) almost completely ruined the prosperity of the tract. After the death of Aurangazeb, Muslim power declined and the Sikhs who occupied the region and ruled through various misls or small to medium sized groups. Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali led raids that further weakened local Muslim rule. Several raids were made by the Bhangi Sardars, a Sikh community. Finally around 1780, Ranjit Singh, a Sikh ruler defeated the grandson of Ahmad Shah Abdali and later occupied this district. The Sikhs were defeated by the British around 1850 and it stayed under British rule until independence in 1947.In 1851, Sheikhupura Tehsil became part of Gujranwala District. The Artimapal Secretary Chief Commissioner Lahore wrote a letter to the Department of Wealth in 1855 to combine the Sheikhupura Tehsil with the Lahore District but it was never done. As soon as it became a District Zillah, a lot of lawyers came to practice. Under Sir Ganga Ram, district courts and hospitals were constructed in the city. 

 The area is a part of Rachna Doab, and consists of some recent sediment brought by spill channel from Chenab River. There are some old channel levee remnants and old basins filled up with clay materials. It is probably of late Pleistocene age derived from mixed calcareous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks of the lower Himalayas. The only mineral products of the District are Kankar and Kallar. The small particles of Kankar may be burnt into lime. These are the features of all bare lands and are found on the surface or a little below it. Kallar is found on mounds, which are sites of old ruined habitations, and is used for the manufacture of crude saltpeter.

With the modest figure of 22,300 in 1951, the population of Sheikhupura has increased more than tenfold to more than) 300,000 in half a century. In recent decades, the rate of growth has increased due to growing agricultural and industrial activities. The current population has been growing steadily and is projected to exceed to 700,000 by 2019.

 As a satellite town of Lahore, Sheikhupura has developed an industrial base. According to the Census of Manufacturing Industries of 1987-1988, the value-added generated in large-scale industries was higher in Sheikhupura than in Lahore. The GRP of the city for the year 1993 has been estimated as Rs. 6,260 million, that constitutes about 32% of the district's GRP. The industrial sector contributes with 68% to the GRP and 45% to the total employment. The total number of establishments in the city has been estimated to be between 11,500 and 12,000 for 1993.