Page 7 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

comes next with 1,346,687. Alipur, with a population of 639,748, is the least
populated sub-division. The breakdown of the population is as follows:

Tehsil Rural Urban Total
Muzaffargarh 1,384,478 239,994 1,624,472
Kot Addu 1,092,775 253,912 1,346,687
Jatoi 555,432 159,144 714,576
Alipur 595,299 44,449 639,748
Total 3,627,984 697,499 4,325,483

The over-all literacy level in the district is 47.11%. In urban areas, it goes as
high as 73%. The literacy level is higher in men: 58% of men are literate as
compared to 35.69%women. As regards the educational qualifications,
40.9% are below primary, 24.91% are primary, 15.14% are middle, 10.31%
are matriculates, 3.99% are intermediate, whereas 4.75% have acquired
higher qualifications.

The mother tongue of majority of the people is Seraiki, i.e. 88.23%, whereas
Punjabi is spoken by 5.66% and Urdu by 4.51%. A small percentage of
people, i.e.1.07%, identify Pashtu as their mother tongue.

The population is overwhelmingly Muslim with 99.78% people professing
Islamic faith. Christians come next at .18%. Most of the Christians reside in
rural areas of Kot Addu, especially around Chowk Sarwar Shaheed. There
are 24 registered churches in the district; 3 churches are in the city area of
Muzaffargarh; 2 are located in Rangpur; 3 within the limits of Police Station
Kot Addu; 3 in Daira Din Panah (Kot Addu); and the rest in Chowk Sarwar
Shaheed.

Qadianis and Hindus are much less, i.e. .03% and .01% of the total
population of Muzaffargarh respectively.
Since Muzaffargarh is largely a rural district, most of the people are
associated with agriculture or related pursuits, in one way or the other.
Muzaffargarh is one of the four main mango growing districts of Punjab; the
other three being Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan. Similarly,
Muzaffargarh, along with Multan and Bahawalpur, constitute date-
producing zone of Punjab. Earlier, cotton was also grown in the district on
large scale but once sugar industry started flourishing here, the farmers
shifted to sugarcane production. At present, there are 4 sugar mills in the
district, of which one is non-functioning since 2017. Except for these sugar
mills, industry is not well established here. There are 6 power generating
units though. The district, however, takes pride in housing the biggest oil
refinery of the country, i.e. PARCO’s Mid Country Oil Refinery. Another worth
mentioning feature of the district is that there are 2 barrages located in it:
Taunsa has been built at Indus while Panjnad is there on the Chenab. The

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