Khairpur, Pakistan

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This article details the city of Khairpur. For other meanings see Khairpur

Khairpur (Urdu: خیرپور) (khīr´poor) is the twelfth largest city in the province of Sindh in southeast Pakistan. It is the capital of the modern Khairpur District and was the capital of the former princely state of Khayrpur.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Economy
4 See also
5 References

[edit] History

Main article: State of Khayrpur

[edit] Demographics

At the 1998 census, the population of the city of Khairpur was 102,188 having increased from 61,447 at the 1981 census. The city has an estimated population^[1] of 127,857 in 2006.

[edit] Economy

Khairpur trades in wheat, cotton, and dates and is linked by road and rail to Karachi. Manufactures include refined sugar. Prior to the annexation of the state in to Pakistan in 1955, Khairpur was an industrially much more advanced than Pakistan producing leather goods, carpets, silk clothing, matches, soap, shoes, cigarettes to name a few. It also had the largest factories in textiles, tobbacco redrying, and silk weaving in the sub-continent. Most of the factories were shut down by the Government of Pakistan which devastated the local economy.

The city used to be a cultural center before the annexation. It has some fine historic buildings, notably the Faiz Palace, Kot Diji Fort, and the Shrine of the sufi saint Sachal.