Sohawa Tehsil

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refimprove=March 2008
cleanup=May 2007Infobox Tehsil Pakistan
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official_name= Sohawa


province= Punjab
district= Jhelum
area_total_km2=
census_year= 1998
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census_pop=
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towns= 1
uc= 10
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map_text =Location within Pakistan

Sohawa is an administrative sub-division (tehsil) of Jhelum District, situated in the Punjab province of Pakistan. [ [http://www.nrb.gov.pk/lg_election/union.asp?district=12&dn=Jhelum Tehsils & Unions in the District of Jhelum - Government of Pakistan] ] It is located in north-western part of the district. One sign of Sohawa is the toll plaza by the name of 'Tarakki' on the Grand Trunk Road. The main bazaar of Sohawa attracts people from nearby villages.

History

The etymology of the name Sohawa has not been proven, but according to folk etymology the original name was "Soo Awa" which means "100 fences of potters". Sohawa was originally a small village near to Khoraka, after several years of human settlement in these two villages, the original village of Soahwa and Khoraka merged with each other and the present town of Sohawa was formed. The original village is part of the main town and called "Ward #1" or "Purana Sohawa" (literally "old Sohawa")

Development organizations

The Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Program [ [http://www.chip-pk.org Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Program] ] (CHIP) is working in tehsil Sohawa since 2004, with its field office in the area CHIP has successfully mobilized community people to get organize into Community-Based Organizations, Community Citizen Boards and Women Organizations. Further, CHIP has duly built the capacity of these local entities to take new initiatives. These community-level organizations, in collaborative partnerships with CHIP, are working on several development projects. The main focus of these projects is to eliminate illiteracy from villages of Sohawa especially those where government education structure does not exist, make clean drinking water available, provide technical support to the local farmers, raise skill development opportunities for women and sensitize communities to include women in decision making. The local community-level organizations developed by CHIP are making successful efforts in implementing development projects by deriving funds from local government bodies.

CHIP has announced Sohawa as its main development area and the organization is assessing further development interventions in villages of Sohawa, presently the main focus of organization is to introduce an 'Inclusive Development Model' which suggest active involvement of people with disabilities in the development process.

Demographics

The village of Bishindaur (new name Dewan-e-Hazoori) near Sohawa was named after Bishan Singh a Sikh who ruled the area. Raja Bishan Singh was the grandson of Raja Ram Singh I and was ruler of Amber, and head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan, from 1688 to 1699. Bishandor was the biggest food market of Sohawa before indo pak partition.it is correct that bishandore name is due to bishan singh but it is not correct that rajas of bishandore belong to bishan sing clan. the rajas of bishandor are Basically Awan.village of Dewan e Hazoori has an annual religious event for the birth of the Wali Haji Hafiz Syed Muahammed Abdullah RA, commonly known as Dewan E Hazoori. There is a darbaar and mosque at the heart of the village, where people flock to every Thursday to visit and pay their respects.

The village of Dewan-e-Hazoori had a mixture of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh inhabitants before the partition in 1948. After the birth of Pakistan, all the Sikhs and Hindus fled to India, leaving the village home to the remaining Muslims. There are no Sikhs or Hindus living in the village at present, only descendants of them. At present, the village has around 3000 inhabitants and is surrounded by a number of smaller colonies called "dhoks", such as Dhok Rajgan, Rala(n) and Dhamyak. Hafiz Azmat from bishandor belong to Cho'mar family but he call themselves as awan.

Notable people

*Raja Mohamad Khaled Khan (Late): Former provisional Minister, elected member of Punjab Assembly, who played an important role to promote Sohawa as a Tehsil headquarter in 1985. He was elected member of Punjab Assembly in 1985, 1990, 1997 and served as provisional minister of overseas Pakistanis. With dozens of progressive works carried out throughout Sohwa Tehsil, he established networks of schools, colleges, roads, electricity, and dispensaries in the town.

*Dr Nadeem Sajjad Raja of Dhoke Khinger, Sohawa, a well known physician, Academic and research scholar in Infectious Diseases & Microbiology. He did MBBS from Pakistan and received further education in the UK. A great honor for Jhelum, Dr Raja name has been included in famous book WHO IS WHO 2009 edition.
*Captain Shabeer Shah Shaeed - Killed in war with India in 1948 in Kashmir. He received several military medals for courage and loyalty.

*Jawed Akhtar Choudhry: A prominent writer, having written four books "Hisar-e-zat", "eik fursat gunah", "harf-e-dua", "sohawa - meri bastee mere logh". The fourth book has focused on the history of the village and its people. The town which no doubt like all other towns and cities has great personal value to its inhabitants, both which have emigrated from it and those that have made it their new abode. The town has its fair share of claim, commensurate to its size, to historical value for being at the cross roads of history.

Major Clans

*Jatt
*Rajput (Bangial, Kiyani,Chohan, Akra)
*Mughal / Mirza/Darzi
*Minhas
*But
*Sayed (Bukhari, Kazmi, Naqvi)
*Sheikh
*Kassab
*Gill (Religiously Christian )
*Gujar
*Miaan
*Afghan immigrants
*kiani

References

External links

* [http://www.sohawa.com Sohawa website]
* [http://www.dewanehazoori.com Dewan-e-Hazoori website]
* [http://pportal.punjab.gov.pk Government of Punjab]