Faisalabadਫੈਸਲਾਬਾਦ

Faisalabad, Pakistan's third-largest city, is a planned industrial hub in the Rachna Doab of central Punjab. Founded in 1890 as Lyallpur and renamed in 1979 for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, it is famous for its clock-tower city plan, its eight radiating bazaars, and the textile industry that earned it the nickname Manchester of Pakistan.

Where is Faisalabad?

Faisalabad stands in the Rachna Doab, the fertile land between the Chenab and Ravi rivers, in central Punjab, Pakistan. The Chenab flows about 30 kilometres to the west of the city, and the Ravi meanders about 40 kilometres to the southeast. The city is the headquarters of both Faisalabad District and Faisalabad Division, and its 2023 census population of 3,691,999 makes it Pakistan's third-largest city, after Karachi and Lahore. The city proper covers about 1,326 square kilometres at an elevation of 186 metres, and the lower Chenab canal provides water to around 80 percent of the cultivated land around it.

History: a city drawn on a Union Jack

The land where Faisalabad now stands was once part of the Sandalbar, a 5,000-square-kilometre tract of thick forest and grazing land between the Chenab and the Ravi. Early accounts describe it as the home of forest-dwelling tribes, with impure groundwater and no river close enough to support a permanent settlement. The area came under British administration after the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849.

In the 1870s the Punjab government launched its canal colony programme, cutting irrigation canals through the western Punjab bar to open new farmland. The Chenab colony, which covered the whole of the Lyallpur district, was the largest of these projects, and the colonisation officer Popham Young chose the site of the present city for the colony's headquarters.

The town that grew there was settled in 1890 and named Lyallpur, meaning Lyall's town, in honour of Lieutenant Governor Sir James Broadwood Lyall, who governed Punjab from 1887 to 1892 and backed the canal colonisation project. It was one of the first planned cities of British India. The centre was laid out to echo the design of the Union Jack, with eight roads radiating from a large clock tower at the middle. Those roads became eight separate bazaars, each leading toward a different region of Punjab.

The railway reached the town in 1895 with the completion of the Wazirabad to Lyallpur link, and in 1904 the new district of Lyallpur was created, with the tehsils of Lyallpur, Samundri and Toba Tek Singh. The Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, now the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, was founded in 1906, with its foundation stone laid by Lieutenant Governor Sir Louis Dane. The town committee became a municipal committee in 1909, and by 1911 the city held 19,578 people. The 1930s brought industrial growth in textiles, food processing and chemicals.

At Partition in 1947, Lyallpur's population rose six times over in the decade that followed, as Muslim refugees from East Punjab settled the city while its Hindu and Sikh residents moved to India. In 1979 the Government of Pakistan renamed the city Faisalabad, with the Persian suffix -abad meaning inhabited place, in honour of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who had reigned from 1964 to 1975, and the close relationship between his kingdom and Pakistan. The 1980s brought foreign investment into textiles and new infrastructure, and in 1982 the city district was upgraded to a division comprising Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh, with Chiniot added later.

Geography and people

Faisalabad lies on the rolling flat plains of northeast Punjab. It is bounded on the north by Chiniot and Sheikhupura, on the east by Sheikhupura and Sahiwal, on the south by Sahiwal and Toba Tek Singh, and on the west by Jhang.

The climate sits between semi-arid and humid subtropical. Average annual rainfall is about 650 millimetres, falling mostly in the monsoon months of July, August and September, while winter brings fog and light rain. The city has recorded a summer maximum of 48 degrees Celsius and a winter minimum of minus 4 degrees.

According to the 2023 census, 90.86 percent of the city's people speak Punjabi as their first language and 8 percent speak Urdu, with Urdu and English as the official languages.

Places of interest

The Ghanta Ghar, or clock tower, still anchors the city centre, with the eight historic bazaars radiating from it: Rail Bazar, Kachehri Bazar, Chiniot Bazar, Aminpur Bazar, Bhowana Bazar, Jhang Bazar, Montgomery Bazar and Karkhana Bazar. The old city around them holds colonial-era buildings and havelis, along with the former Company Bagh, now Jinnah Gardens.

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad, founded in 1906, is one of South Asia's oldest agricultural universities and anchors the city's identity as a farming and food-processing centre. The Government College University Faisalabad also dates to the colonial era.

The Chenab Club, the Lyallpur Museum and the Gurdwara Lyallpur, built in 1911 during British rule, reflect the city's layered past. For sport, Iqbal Stadium, originally Lyallpur Stadium and established in the early 1970s, hosted its first Test match in October 1978 between Pakistan and India.

Notable people

The qawwali legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan in Lyallpur on 13 October 1948. Known as the Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, he carried his family's centuries-old qawwali tradition to audiences in more than 40 countries before his death in London in 1997. He is buried in Faisalabad.

The computer prodigy Arfa Karim Randhawa was born in Faisalabad on 2 February 1995 and became the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 at the age of nine, a title she held until 2008. She received Pakistan's Pride of Performance award in 2005 and died in Lahore in January 2012 at sixteen.

The cricketer Saeed Ajmal, born in Faisalabad on 14 October 1977, became one of the world's leading spin bowlers, topping the ICC ODI bowling rankings and playing for Pakistan from 2008 to 2015.

Getting there

Faisalabad is well connected by road, rail and air. Its railway station dates to the colonial era, when the Wazirabad to Lyallpur link first tied the town to the wider network in 1895, and trains still run to Lahore, Karachi and other major cities. Motorways and national highways link the city to Lahore, Multan and Islamabad. Faisalabad International Airport handles domestic flights and international services, mainly to the Gulf.

Faisalabad today

Today Faisalabad is Pakistan's industrial workhorse and is called the Manchester of Pakistan for its vast textile industry. Agriculture and industry remain its twin hallmarks: the city's economy was estimated at 43 billion dollars in 2013, and it contributes over 20 percent to the country's GDP. Textile mills, power looms, dyeing units and garment factories ring the old planned core, while new housing schemes, universities and hospitals spread outward. The planned grid of the 1890s still shapes the inner city, and the clock tower still marks its heart.