Khushab District

Khushab District (Punjabi ضِلع خُوشاب), is a district in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, with its administrative capital in Jauharabad. The district is named after the historical city of Khushab located within its boundaries. According to the 1998 census, the population was 905,711, with 24.76% living in urban areas.

The district consists of four tehsils: Khushab, Noorpur Thal, Quaidabad and Naushera. Khushab is home to the Heavy Water and Natural Uranium Research Reactor, part of Pakistan's Special Weapons Program. District Khushab shares boundaries with the districts of Sargodha, Jhelum, Chakwal, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Jhang.

Geography

Khushab is situated between the cities of Sargodha and Mianwali, near the river Jhelum. The district capital is Jauharabad (founded 1953, pop. 39,477).

Khushab consists of agricultural lowland plains, lakes, and hills. Parts of the Thal desert touch the district, which has a breadth of over 70 miles (110 km) and is situated between the Indus and Jhelum rivers.

There are three lakes (Ochali, Khabbaki, and Jahlar) in the district. Kanhatti Garden is the largest forest in Khushab district, near Khabbaki village in the Soon Valley. Khabikki Lake is a salt-water lake in the southern Salt Range. The lake is one kilometre wide and two kilometres long. Khabikki is also the name of a neighbouring village. Sakesar is the highest mountain in the Salt Range, and is the site of the ancient Amb Temples. Sakesar’s summit is 1,522 m (4,946 ft) high and is situated in Khushab District.

Demographics

At the 2017 census, Khushab district had 209,466 households and a population of 1,280,372. Khushab had a sex ratio of 1,008 females per 1,000 males and a literacy rate of 59.75% - 75.31% for males and 44.64% for females. 352,960 inhabitants (27.57%) lived in urban areas. 307,619 (24.03%) were under 10 years of age. In 2023, the district had 248,449 households and a population of 1,501,089.

According to the 1998 census, the primary language of the district is Punjabi, spoken by 97.7% of the population, with Urdu being spoken by 1.5%.^: 22

At the 2017 census, 94.43% of the population spoke Punjabi, 1.74% Pashto, 1.72% Saraiki and 1.05% Urdu as their first language. 0.97% of the population spoke languages classified as 'Others'. The dialect of Punjabi spoken here is Shahpuri.

Education

According to Pakistan District Education Ranking, a report released by Alif Ailaan, Khushab is ranked 42 nationally with an education score of 65.42 and learning score of 65.82.

The readiness score of Khushab is 62.33. The infrastructure score of the district is 88.11, which indicates that the schools in Khushab have adequate facilities

The issues reported in TaleemDo! app says that there are some areas where there are no government schools for girls. Another major issue reported was that teachers don't do their jobs properly and don't do justice to their profession.

Administrative divisions

Khushab got the status of district in 1982. At the start, the district was divided into two tehsils, Khushab, Noorpur Thal. Later on Quaidabad was given the status of Tehsil in March 2007 and Naushera (Wadi e Soon) became 4th Tehsil of District Khushab in March 2013. In the local bodies delimitation of 2000 (before the creation of the Tehsil Quaidabad and Naushehra), it contained a total of fifty-one Union Councils. In the 2015 delimitation of District Khushab, 48 rural union councils and 7 urban Municipal Committees were created by the election Commission of Pakistan.

Khushab Tehsil

In 2000, Tehsil Khushab was subdivided into 32 Union councils; but in 2015, 10 urban Union councils (Khushab 5, Jauharabad 2, Hadali 2 and Mitha Tiwana 1) transferred to Municipal Committees whereas six Union councils have become the part of Tehsil Naushehra. Now Tehsil Khushab has 18 Union councils and 5 Municipal Committees:

Noorpur Thal Tehsil

Noorpur Thal is subdivided into 12 Union Councils and 1 Municipal Committee.

Quaidabad Tehsil

Quaidabad is subdivided into 10 Union Councils and 2 Municipal Committees.

Naushera Tehsil

Naushera (Vadi e Soon) is subdivided into 6 Union Councils and 1 Municipal Committee.

Notable people

• Malik Shakir Bashir Awan, Politician, Lawyer, Social Activist
• Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Urdu poet, fiction writer, and journalist
• Wasif Ali Wasif, teacher, writer, poet, and Sufi
• Abdulqadir Hassan, writer and journalist
• Idris Azad, philosopher, poet, fiction writer, and journalist
• Sardar Bahadur Sujan Singh, agriculturist and contractor
• Sardar Bahadur Sir Sobha Singh, contractor and real estate developer, who owned around half of Lutyens' Delhi
• Ujjal Singh, freedom fighter, politician, Finance Minister of Punjab, Governor of Punjab and Tamil Nadu
• Khushwant Singh, Indian novelist, lawyer, politician, and journalist
• Sohail Warraich, writer and journalist
• Malik Naeem Khan Awan, former Federal Minister of Pakistan
• Sumaira Malik, former Federal Minister of Pakistan & Granddaughter of Nawab of Kalabagh
• Feroz Khan Noon, former Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• Malik Khuda Buksh Tiwana, former Federal Minister of Pakistan
• Sultan Khan, chess player

Notes

References

External links

• Khushab District