Bahawalpur, is a city southeastern Punjab province of Pakistan. The nawabs of Bahawalpur originally came from Sind; they formed a princely state and assumed independence in 1802. The city, which lies just south of the Sutlej River, was founded in 1748 by Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi I, and was incorporated as a municipality in 1874. The Abbasi family ruled over the State for more than 200 years (1748 to 1954). During the rule of the last Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V, Bahawalpur State was merged with Pakistan in 1954. Bahawalpur was formerly the capital of the state and now it is the District and Divisional Headquarters of Bahawalpur Division.

Bahawalpur is an important marketing center for the surrounding areas and is located on the cross roads between Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi, about 889 kms from Karachi. Saraiki is the local language of the area but Urdu, Punjabi and English are also spoken and understood by most the people. Bahawalpur has a modest museum having a fine collection of coins, medals, postage stamps of former State of Bahawalpur, manuscripts, documents, inscriptions, wood carvings, camel skin paintings, historical models and stone carving etc. of Islamic and pre-Islamic period.

Bahawalpur is also the site of the Adamwahan (Empress) Bridge, the only railway bridge over the Sutlej River in Pakistan, and has rail links with Peshawar and Karachi. Two of the three palaces of the nawabs (the Nur Mahal and Gulzar Mahal) are located in Bahawalpur. The city is the seat of Islamia University (1975), the Quaid-e Azam Medical College, Sadiq Public School (SPS), and many other Govt. Institutes (Schools and Colleges). In fact, Bahawalpur is an important agricultural training and educational center.

Soap making and cotton ginning are important enterprises; cotton, silk, embroidery, carpets, and extraordinarily delicate pottery are produced. Factories producing cottonseed oil and cottonseed cake were built in the 1970s. The region surrounding Bahawalpur to the west, called the Sind, is a fertile alluvial tract in the Sutlej River valley that is irrigated by floodwaters, planted with groves of date palms, and thickly populated.

Since it is an agricultural land, the chief crops are wheat, gram, cotton, sugarcane, and dates. Sheep and cattle are raised for export of wool and hides. East of Bahawalpur is the Pat, or Bar, a tract of land considerably higher than the adjoining valley. It is chiefly desert irrigated by the Sutlej inundation canals and yields crops of wheat, cotton, and sugarcane. Farther east, the Rohi, or Cholistan, is a barren desert tract, bounded on the north and west by the Hakra depression with mound ruins of old settlements along its high banks; it is still inhabited by nomads.

Population:

(1981 prelim.) metropolitan area, 695,000.