Sialkot

Sialkot District or the District of Sialkot , is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the province. The city of Sialkot is the capital of the district.

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 Pathan family. 

Sialkot District lies southeast of Gujrat District, southwest of Jammu district, while Narowal District is to the southeast and Gujranwala District is situated to the west. Sialkot district is spread over an area of 3,016 square kilometres comprising of the following four tehsils.    

The main crops grown in the district are wheat and rice, the main fruits are guava and citruses - vegetables cultivated include potatoes, turnips, garlic, cauliflower, peas, and onions. The district has 15,078 acres (61.02 km2) of forest, 12,295 km of metalled roads, 12 grid stations, 45 telephone exchanges and 3229 industrial units.     

The major crops and fruit of district Sialkot are wheat, rice, citrus and guava. Their average annual production over the period 1998-2001 was 453, 242, 6 and 11 thousand Metric Tons, respectively. A variety of vegetables are also grown in the district.There are 14 flour mills, 57 rice husking units, one sugar mill, one vegetable ghee unit and one fruit juice unit already working in the district. However, there exist good prospects for rice bran oil, rice husk briquettes, maize products, dal mills, etc.  

As per Punjab Development Statistics for the year 2000, the population of cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats was 195, 471, 42 and 137 thousand heads respectively. For poultry, there were 954 broiler, 134 layer and 9 breeding poultry farms, having a rearing capacity of 11150, 747 and 63 thousand birds respectively. The annual availability of hides and skins is estimated at 536 thousand pieces. In the district of Sialkot there are 92 tanneries, 244 leather garments/products manufacturing units, and more than 900 leather sports goods manufacturing units. There exists a scope for dairy farms, animal/poultry feed, and cattle/sheep/goat fattening farms. 

Sialkot is a city of writers and poets. Sialkot is also the birthplace of the Muslim philosopher, scholar and poet, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, as well as the famous Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, another famous poet and writer, was born at Kot Mehrath, Sialkot. Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan also born in Sialkot. He was President of the International Court of Justice in Den Haag, Pakistan's first foreign minister and the president of the UN-Assembly.Amjad Islam Amjad the famous Urdu poet and lyricist was born at Sialkot. Professor Rajinder Singh Bedi, a famous Urdu writer, was also born at Sialkot. Narendra Kohli, who is one of the most prominent Hindi language authors of modern times, belongs to Sialkot as well. Zulfikar Ghose, famous English writer, was born at Sialkot. The famous Indian journalist, Kuldip Nayyar, was also born at Sialkot. In journalism, Khalid Hasan, Professor Waris Mir and his son, Hamid Mir, Jawed Iqbal, Muhammad Farooq and Mumtaz Hamid Rao are notable. The famous Indian politician and twice Prime Minister of India, Gulzari Lal Nanda, also belonged from Sialkot. The eminent orator of Pakistan Syed Faiz-ul Hassan Shah belonged from Sialkot. Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi was born at Sialkot. Khawaja Muhammad Safdar a former acting President of Pakistan and Chairman of the Majlis-e-Shoora also hails from Sialkot. His son, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, is a well-known and seasoned politician of Pakistan who presently represents Sialkot in the Pakistan National Assembly. He was a minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources in the last democratically-elected parliament. Former Speaker of the National Assembly, and Acting President, Chaudhry Amir Hussain and the Interior minister Rehman Malik also hail from Sialkot. ch m.umairThe famous Lollywood hero Waheed Murad, Bollywood hero Rajendra Kumar and the veteran actor A. K. Hangal were also born at Sialkot. Ghulam Ali, the famous Ghazal singer and Ustad Allah Rakha, the famous Sarangi Nawaz are also from Sialkot. Sialkot is not only famous and internationally recognised for its sports industry, but also for the sports-persons like the Pakistan National Cricket players, Ijaz Butt, (Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board), Zaheer Abbas, Ijaz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Mansoor Amjad, Zahid Fazal, Abdur Rehman, Abbas Khan (Finnish National Cricket player) and Jawaid Iqbal (Hong Kong National Cricket player) were also born at Sialkot. The captains and players of the Pakistani National Hockey team including Shahnaz Sheikh, Manzoor Hussain Jr., Nasir Ali, Asif Bajwa, (Secretary of Pakistan Hockey Federation), Tariq Sheikh, Zahid Sheikh, Muhammad Waqas Sharif, Mahmood Hussain, Maqsood Hussain, Munir Bhatti and Kamran Ashraf also hail from this city. Ex national snooker champion Abu Saim and Chacha Cricket, a world-known cricket fan, also belongs to Sialkot. 

 Sialkot FortAlso of interest is the birth place of Dr. Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) which has been turned into a small museum containing some of his personal belongings and a library and named as Iqbal Manzil (Iqbal House). The most famous square of Sialkot city is Allama Iqbal Chowk. Here, the famous Shaheen monument has been erected to pay tributes to Dr. Muhammad Iqbal. Near the Allama Iqbal Chowk is located the biggest grand mosque of the city, Jamia Masjid Donga Bagh. One of its three minarets is the tallest land mark in Sialkot. Other places of interest include the tombs of the great Muslim scholars, Mullah Abdul Hakim Sialkoti near Abdul Hakim Park, Hakim Khadim Ali on Khadim Ali Road and Hafiz Muhammad Alam, near Do Darwaza (the name of one of the gates of the once walled city). 

Sialkot International Airport is the first-ever private-sector airport of Pakistan managed by the SIAL consortium. It is located near Sambrial and is noted for having the longest runway in Pakistan. Direct flights are available from Sialkot International Airport to Karachi, Islamabad, Abu Dhabi Sharjha & London, Muscat Kuwait, Dubai & Jeddah. Pakistan International Airlines has plans to start non-stop flights from Sialkot to Manchester, London & Barcellona & Hajj flights have started from the Sialkot International Airport last year in 2009. Emirates is also expected to start flights in mid 2010 to Dubai. Airblue will operate on domestic routes to Islamabad, Multan and Karachi in mid 2010.A small Sialkot Cantonment Airport, located in the Sialkot Cantonment, is in use of the aviation wing of the Pakistan Army. This airport has also been used as a public airport by PIA for operating a Helicopter service from Sialkot to Islamabad in 1995-1996.Sialkot Dry Port carries the honor of being the first-ever private-sector dry port in Asia. It was established in 1986 near Sambrial, about 20 km from the Sialkot city under the control of the Sialkot Dry Port Trust.Sialkot is served by Pakistan Railways through the Sialkot Junction. Sialkot used to be a junction in the British era with trains leaving for Jammu and Gurdaspur. Plans are under consideration to open the border for an international train between Sialkot and Jammu. Express trains to and from Narowal, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Karachi are available daily. The Railway station is situated in the center of the city. Other suburban train stations are Ugoki and Sambrial.Sialkot is about two hours from Lahore and four hours from Islamabad.Sialkot is linked with the National Highway N-5 through Gujranwala and Wazirabad. A dual carriage-way is available between Sialkot and Wazirabad. A new bridge on the Chenab river, called the Shahbazpur bridge, is under construction these days which is located to the north-east of Gujrat. Once completed, it will connect Sialkot to N-5 at Gujrat. The Sialkot Lahore Motorway (M-11) is also under construction. All the bus and commuter coach stations are located on the Jail Road. A bus service operated by Daewoo is available from Sialkot to Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan.Recently, public transport has been launched in Sialkot on one route which circle around the city. SCCI Sialkot Chamber of Commerce & Industry has signed an MOU with American bus company FOTON to provide airconditioned lcoal transport to the citizens with CNG fuel. However main mode of transport within the city at present is the auto rikshaw. Although no proper taxi service exists in the city, there are many rent-a-car service outlets.