Kabirwala (, Punjabi language ) is a town of Khanewal District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town is the headquarters of Kabirwala Tehsil, an administrative subdivision of Khanewal District.[ Tehsils & Unions in the District of Khanewal National Reconstruction Bureau, Government of Pakistan] The population of the town of Kabirwala was 91,932,
Location
Kabirwala's geographical coordinates are 30°20'10" North, 70°43'30" East. It is one of four tehsils in Khanewal District. Kabirwala lies 10 km north of the district capital
Khanewal on the
Multan-
Jhang road. Kabirwala is a city north 40 km from Multan city.
History
The city is named Kabirwala after Baba Pir Kabir, who lived in the area. Kabirwala was part of Multan until restructuring made the largest sub division of Khanewal district. Sirai Sidhu, a historic city, used to be the tehsil headquarters of the whole district Khanewal, before 1937.
During
British Raj,
Kabirwala was the northernmost tehsil of
Multan Division,
Punjab region – the boundaries were larger than today lying between 30°5' and 30°45'N. and 71°35' and 72°36' E., with an area of . The population in 1901 was 130,507 compared with 113,412 in 1891. It then contained the town of
Tulamba (population in 1901 – 2526) and 320 villages, including Kabirwala, the headquarters. The land revenue and
in 1913-4 amounted to 520,000. The
Ravi River runs through the northern portion of the tehsil to its junction with the
Chenab River in the north-west corner. The north and west portions were irrigated by the Sidhnai Canal, while the south consisted of uncultivated Bar Jungle.
During the period of British rule it existed as a sub-division of the Multan district and had an annual revenue of over half a million Rupees.
Religion and culture
The Kabirwala area is a land of diverse religions and culture. Along with the tombs of Muslim Sufi saints, there are also Hindu places of worship. The Kabirwala city being the seat of Baba Pir Kabir,
the historic tomb of Khalid Walid, in Mauza Khati Chore along Multan – Sarai Sidhu Road, 24 km to the west of Kabirwala city is located. The tomb of the saint Abdul Hakim is also located in this area in a sub tehsil city of Abdul Hakim. The tomb of the saint Ali Sher Bhutta Naqshbandi is also located in this city. The mausoleum was built very recently on the site where Ali Sher used to meet his disciples and help people, both locals and those from further afield.
Production, processing and trade
Nestle has chosen Kabirwala as the site for its largest Asian milk processing plant, on the same road, having purchased the Kabirwala Dairy Limited in the 1990s. Reportedly, the plant has a processing capacity of two million litres of milk a day, which is set to rise to three million in the near future. Nestlé, through the network of its milk collection centres spread all over the province of Punjab, collects milk from over 140,000 dairy farmers.
Communication and transport
Kabirwala is located at the crossroads of several important routes. It links south with north of Pakistan. All the transport from the
Sindh province, Dera Ghazi Khan,
Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan,
Bahawalpur,
Multan, and Khanewal districts traveling to the capital of Pakistan,
Islamabad, has to pass through Kabirwala to connect to
Jhang and
Sargodha. There are two bus stands; the old one is located at the western edge of the city along the Multan Road, and the new one is located on the southern edge of the city along the Khanewal Road. Apart from the offices of bus companies, these bus stands also house the offices of trucking, logistics, and cargo companies.
Notable people
-
Har Gobind Khorana, the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine (1968) was born here in 1922.
-
Fakhar Imam, was the 11th Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
