Sukkur District

Sukkur district, (ضلعو سکر), is a district in Sindh Province in Pakistan. It is divided into 4 administrative strata (tehsils), namely; Sukkur City, Rohri, Saleh Pat and Pano Aqil. Among them Sukkur city and new Sukkur are urban centre while Pano Aqil is famous for having one of largest military cantonment of the country. Rohri is the smallest tehsil of the Sukkur district, both in area and population but it has one of ancient and important railway junction.

Administration
According to the 2010 estimations of Pakistan, at least 59.50% of the population of Sukkur district were urban, making it the third-most advanced district in Sindh.

Demographics


At the time of Pakistan's independence in 1947, Sukkur district comprised approximately 200,000 inhabitants, mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits and fishing industry. Over time, Sukkur has seen a moderate rise in population (2 to 2.5% per annum) as compared to Pakistan's, except in late 1960s and early 70s when population growth rate reached 4.43% (1972 census) due to internal migration and establishment of some large bridges on river Indus. According to official census of 1998, Sukkur has 908370 inhabitants and density of 175.9 persons per square kilometre. The current estimate (on the basis of 2.88% annual growth) shows that Sukkur population has surpassed 1 million.

Sukkur district is chiefly populated by Muslims, that constitute 96% of the total population, of which, the Sunni form a clear majority, about (80%) and Shias are about 16%. The minorities include: Hindus 3.28% and Christians about 0.51%. Hindus are mostly settled in urban areas and are engaged in the trade and services sectors. Ethnically, Sindhis share the biggest segment of population in Sukkur and Rohri city areas(70.50%), followed by Muhajirs (15.50%); Punjabi (7.50%); Pashto (2.50%); Seraiki (1.00%); Baluchi (1.00)and others (2.00). Baloch tribes include, Mirani Rind,Kalyar, Chandio, Gabol, Khoso and Leghari. Others include Indhar, Ansaris, Arain Mahars, Maka, Syed, Mughals, Soomro, Mangrio, chijjan, Phulpoto, Palh and many more. There are Memon, Punjabi and Saraiki sections. Traditionally Memons were associated with trade and retail business but during last two decades they have ascended as an active social and economic front. Soomro are basically sindhi speaking, peace-minded, open-hearted, associated with law, trade, information technology, technical, medical, administration, generally in education and social fields; for their development they perform steps ahead day and night. The Terhaily family are basically saraiki speaking,and mostly are associated with profession of law, medical and education.

Following are the demographic indicators of the district (including Kashmore Dist) from the 1998 census of Pakistan:

Religion

 * Islam: 96.13%
 * Hinduism: 3.28%
 * Christianity: 0.51%
 * Ahmaddiya: 0.04%
 * Others: 0.1%

Language

 * Sindhi: 74.07%
 * Urdu: 13.82%
 * Punjabi:6.63%
 * Pashto:1.53%
 * Baluchi:1.47%
 * Seraiki:0.99%
 * Others:1.49% (mainly Memon and Gujarati)