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This article is part of the series Former subdivisions of Pakistan

Original provinces Baluchistan East Bengal Federal Capital Territory NWFP Sind West Punjab Princely states Baluchistan States Union Amb Bahawalpur Chitral Dir Hunza Kalat Khairpur Kharan Las Bela Makran Nagar Phulra Swat Minor states Jhalawan Phulra Sarawan One-unit provinces East Pakistan West Pakistan Other subdivisions Gilgit Agency    Trans-Karakoram Tract Marri-Bugti Country Divisions of Pakistan

West Punjab

Capital Lahore Area 160,662 km² Languages Punjabi Established  15th August 1947 Abolished 14th October 1955

Government of Punjab

West Punjab was a former province of Pakistan which existed from 1947 to 1955. The province covered an area of 160,622 km², including much of the current Punjab province and the Islamabad Capital Territory, but excluding the former princely state of Bahawalpur. The capital was the city of Lahore and the province was composed of four divisions (Lahore, Sargodha, Multan and Rawalpindi). The province was bordered by the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir to the east, the princely state of Bahawalpur to the south, the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh to the southwest, the North-West Frontier Province to the northwest, and Azad Kashmir to the northeast.

History

The independence of Pakistan in 1947 led to the divisions of the Punjab province into two new provinces. The largely Sikh and Hindu East Punjab became part of the new nation of India while the largely Muslim West Punjab became part of the new nation of Pakistan. The name of the province was shortened to Punjab in 1950. West Punjab was merged into the province of West Pakistan in 1955 under the One Unit policy announced by Prime Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Ali. When that province was dissolved, the area of the former province of West Punjab was combined with the former state of Bahawalpur to form a new Punjab Province.

Demographics

At independence there was a Muslim majority in West Punjab with significant minorities of Hindus and Sikhs. Nearly all of these minorities left West Punjab for India, to be replaced by large numbers of Muslims fleeing in the opposite direction. The official language of West Punjab was Urdu but most of the population spoke Punjabi using the Shahmukhi script. The linguist George Abraham Grierson in his multivolume Linguistic Survey of India (1904-1928) considered the various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken in North, West, and South of Lahore in what is now Pakistani Punjab, as constituting instead a distinct language from Punjabi. (The local dialect of Lahore is the Majhi dialect of Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.) Grierson proposed to name this putative language "Lahnda", and he dubbed as "Southern Lahnda" the coherent dialect cluster now known as Saraiki spoken in Multan Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur division and "North Lahnda" now known as Potwari spoken in Rawalpindi division and "Western Lahnda" now known as Hindko spoken in the regions bordering NWFP. .

Government

The offices of Governor of West Punjab and Chief Minister of West Punjab lasted from August 15, 1947, until 14 October 1955. The first Governor was Sir Francis Mudie with Iftikhar Hussain Khan as the first Chief Minister. Both offices were abolished in 1955, when the province of West Pakistan was created. The last Governor of West Punjab, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, became the first Governor of West Pakistan.

Contemporary usage

Today the term West Punjab is used in Pakistan to describe the western part of Pakistan's Punjab province,^[2] while in India it is often used to refer to Pakistani Punjab.^[3]

See also

• Punjab region
• Punjab (Pakistan)
• Punjab (India)
• Haryana
• Bahawalpur State

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Ben Cahoon, WorldStatesmen.org. "Pakistan Provinces". http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Pakistan_states.html#Punjab. Retrieved 2007-10-03.  
2. ^ The political divides within - Dawn
3. ^ Excavated Sites - Government of Punjab (India)

External links

• Government of Punjab
• Government of Pakistan
• Punjab Provincial Assembly Records
• Population at 1951 census by Statoids.com

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