- Shikarpur, Pakistan
Shikarpur (
Urdu : شڪارپورSindhi : شِڪارپوُرُ ) is the capital ofShikarpur District inSindh province ofPakistan . It is situated about 29 km from the left bank of the Indus, with a railway station, 37 km NW. of Sukkur.History
, and its merchants have dealings with many towns in Central Asia. It has seven gates like Hathi Gate, Lakhi Gate etc. It is famous for its pickles and sweets from Mola Bukhsh Memon. It has a large market and manufactures cotton cloth and pottery. Because of its rich history. Shikarpur used to be called an "Old Paris" because of unknown reason while some people thinks that it was called an "Old Paris" because of its modern building of that time but some things that it was because of some perfume or "Ittar" industry in the Shikarpur.
Geography
District Shikarpur, with an area of 2640 square kilometers, has a population of 880,000. It is divided in four "taulkas": Shikarpur, Lakhi, Gari Yaseen and Khanpur. Its borders meet with districts of Larkana, Jacobabd, Khairpur & Sukkur. Two National Highways (N-65 & N-55) intersect in the city of Shikarpur, so it can well be termed as,one of the junction points of the four provinces.
District Shikarpur was once famous for education and other civic amenities throughout undivided India until the first half of the 20th Century. Rau Bahadur Udhau-Das Tara Chand Hospitial, Heeranand Ganga Bai Ladies Hospital, Chella Ram & Seetal Das College, Two old High Schools now known as school No:1 & 2 and Girls College here, are some dignified and marvelous towers, showing outstanding standards of Shikarpurians during that era. For security the city was then protected by seven gates & one window. Now, infrastructure being old, Shikarpur is experiencing a lot of problems. Heavy inflow of rural populace has further burdened this old system, needing immediate overhualing.
District Shikarpur has a total road length of 920.0 kilometers, including 125.0 kilometers of National Highways and 195.0 kilometers of Provincial Highways. It is, thus, deficient in road density (0.35 Km/Km2) compared with recognized international parameters of development (1 Km/Km2). During the last few years, creeping development activity has taken pace and 71.0 kilometers of road, 94 schools and a number of schemes in drainage, health and other sectors have been completed, under various Programs. Basically, agrarian economy of district Shikarpur is dependent upon non-perennial irrigation system, so the district is always in semi-drought conditions always. The last spell of drought is particularly notable as it created heavy unemployment and unsustainable poverty, which without doubt created serious law & order situations.
See also
*
Aftab Shaban Mirani
*Gul Agha (computer scientist) References
*1911
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