Qasba Gujrat
Qasba Gujrat (Urdu: قصبه گُجرات) is a small town in District Muzaffargarh, Punjab, Pakistan. The coordinates of Qasba Gujrat are 30°15'3"N 71°29'12"E.The city is usually crowded with oil tankers due to the presence of Pak-Arab Refinery.A WAPDA electricity grid and a PSO oil depot are also currently working in Qasba Gujrat. Wheat, cotton and sugar cane, mangoes, citrus, guavas, and pomegranates are grown in this area.This town is considered as the center of Pakistan and the campuses regarding to any department are called as mid-country campuses. Many multinational projects are being launched in this area by Hascol Petroleum Limited, Attock Petroleum Limited etc. A Tarcoal Plant is recently established in this area. The Lal Pir Power Company Limited, was incorporated in 1994, location in Mehmood Kot, District Muzaffargarh, Punjab, Pakistan. Lal Pir Power Plant produces 362 MW of electricity.
Pak-Arab Refinery (PARCO) is an oil refinery located in Qasba Gujrat and is largest refinery of Pakistan.A Urea Plant is being installed by Pak-Arab Refinery.
Political History of Qasba Gujrat
Qasba Gujrat is unique in a sense as it is surrounded by the areas where feudal lords have had rigid control over the political power but the people of Qasba Gujrat never supported feudal lords in any elections at large especially at the union council level. Qasba Gujrat was the only area in southern Punjab whose Chairman supported Mohtarma Fatima Jinah when she was competing with an Army Dictator General Ayub Khan. Chairman of Qasba Gujrat at that time was Choudhary Basheer Arain. Ghulam Mustafa Khar who has been an MNA several times never got popular votes from Qasba Gujrat. Khars and Gurmanis have always been appointing their representatives to become chairmen and members of district councils of all union councils of Tehseel Kot Addu but non of their Candidates won the election from Qasba Gujrat in last several elections. That clearly shows that people of Qasba Gujrat are politically aware and much different from the people of neighbouring towns. When Mustafa Khar was the governor Punjab, even then he could not get his local representative successful in becoming Chairman of the town.
The main political personalities of the area include Iqbal Khan Tareen, Choudhary Khalid Mahmood, Mahar Ghulam Rasool Siyal and Dr Sajid Mahmood Ashraf etc. Iqbal Khan Tareen was elected as chairman of the area for two times while Chaudhary Khalid Mahmood was elected as chairman and Nazim several times repeatedly. Dr Sajid Mahmood Ashraf is a main and young political and social figure of the area who brought Jamshaid Dasti in the area to defeat Khars. He himself got almost 20000 votes in last parliamentary elections as an independent candidate. The most influential families of the area include, Arain, Tareen,Chandia, Qureshi Sayyeds And
Gujjar Brothers
Muhammad Zeeshan Ali
Economy
Most of the people of this town are poor because Khars and Gurmanis who have been the MNA's and MPA;s have always neglected this area. Although industry PARCO and AES as well PSO have been there for decades but only few dozen people from the town were employed by these organizations. Presence of the above mentioned organizations in the area has increased the demand of basic consumer goods and services. Increase in the prices is a logical consequence so purchasing power of the poor people is constantly decreasing.
Hospitals and Schools
There is a small public hospital in the town with limited resources. However there are quite a few private hospitals in Qasba Gujrat. Famous doctors of the town include Dr Qadeer, Dr Hanif choudhary, Dr Sajid Mahmood Ashraf, Dr Hafiz Kamran Khalid , Dr Sehr Kamran, Dr Waseem Iqbal Ch and Dr Qazi.
There are quite of few public and private schools and post secondary colleges in the town. Although Bloomfield hall school and City schools are located in PARCO and AES however some children from the town can also admitted there.
Notable personalities of civil society
In spite of huge poverty and in spite of cruelties of Fudal Lords, This town has produced dozens of graduate engineers, doctors, lawyers and professors in last two decades. The Town has even produced PhD's. The first PhD's include Dr Shafiq Chaudhary (Islamia University Bahawalpur), Dr Nadeem Chaudhary (Federal Chief Accountant) Dr Rizwan Khalid Chaudhary ( Waterloo, Canada). At least 5 people from this town are PhD candidates in different universities.
Recently, a young man from this town named Salman Khalid Chaudhary has passed CSS and joined Foreign services of Pakistan. He got the highest marks in the css interview and broke all the previous records.
Crimes
All kinds of drugs are very easily accessible in the town. Crime rate is very high as compared to neighboring areas because of the increased economic pressure and poverty caused by the organizations like PARCO that this town hosts.
Infrastructure.
Roads and bridges in the area have always been overloaded because of the thousands of oil tankers and other traffic used by PARCO and PSO. Government as well as these organizations have been failed to invest in the development of infrastructure that's why hundreds of people die in road accidents every year. There is no fire brigade facility in the town even though there have been il and fire related accidents in the town that took dozens of lives.
Religious Fundamentalism
Qasba Gujrat has atleast 70 people employed either by the local madrasas or unemployed now who have been trained in Afganistan and have been fighting there for years. Government or civil society organizations have not thought about providing alternative work for them. Most of these Ex Mujahideen are now related to different religious banned organizations. Common people of this town are not into fundamentalism but presence of these Ex Mujahideen causes religious tension sometimes.
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References
Coordinates: 30°15′3″N 71°29′12″E / 30.25083°N 71.48667°E