Hazro, Punjab

Hazro حضرو
Country	Pakistan
Province	Punjab
District	Attock District
Tehsil	Hazro Tehsil
Government
• Nazim (Mayor)	Mr. Raza Khan
Elevation	1,184 ft (361 m)
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	+6
Calling code	057
Union councils	14
Website	www.HazroCity.com

Hazro (حضرو) is a town located at north-west of Pakistan in Attock District of the Punjab province Pakistan. It is located approximately half-way between Peshawar and Islamabad; the federal capital. This town is capital of Hazro Tehsil, an administrative subdivision of the district, and the central marketplace of Chachh region consisting of 82 villages located at northern shores of renowned Indus River.

The vast majority of people speak Hindko. Pashto is another predominately spoken at near by villages such as Behboodi, Waisa, Tajik, Kamilpur, Musa, Shadi Khan, Shinka, Jalalia, Momin Pur, Haroon, Yaseen, Bara, Pinjwana, Saleem Khan, Nartopa etc, as well as many of the villages being bilingual in both languages.

Location

The exact location of Hazro can be specified as, 7 km off the Pindi-Peshawar GT road (northwards). Hazro is located at the edge of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Punjab border and being a central town of the Chachh region it has been the centre of attraction. It is located 20.4 kilometres from Attock and 22.9 kilometres from Topi (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

History and Tribes

The founder of hazro was Hazir Khan Alizai famous as "hazro baba",who came with army of Ghaznavi army and belongs to alizai tribe of Durrani, from Kandahar Province(Afghanistan).The word hazro is derived from "hazir",and majority of pathans belong to hazir khan. In Hazro there are famous personalities like Saeed Azam Khan (Engineer) and Waheed Azam Khan (G D Pilot in Pakistan Air Force) are the sons of Police Chief Baziz Khan . A large percentage of the population of Chhachh have Pashtoon roots and belongs to Qais Abdur Rashid(Qays Abdul Al-Rashid pathan) (father of all pashtuns). Mostly descendants of the tribes of Durrani, Alizai, Yousafzai, Kakar, Jadoon, Tanoli, Tareen, Tahirkheli, Sadozai, Khattak and Barakzai. They arrived in the area around 1000A.D as part of the army of Ghazni and made it their permanent home after defeating the Hindu confederation near Hazro. Proof of this is that many of the villages & individual quarters are named after certain Pakhtun personalities & tribes, markedly proving who had founded them. For eg. Aka Khel, Nasozai, Inayat Khel, Utman Khel, Saleem Khan,Garhi Alizai, Peerzai, Ghorghushti, Adalzai, Barazai etc. Most of these Pashtoons now refer to themselves as Pathans and speak Hindko as their main language. Chach Pathans are revered for their fighting ability in ancient times and more recently for their many advancements in education, culture, and society. It is claimed that Hindko was the original ancient language of Chhachh when it was part of the Gandharan civilisation and was adopted over time by the Pashtoon tribes of the area. The remaining population of Chach consists of Mughals, Kashmiris, Jats, Bangashs, Rajputs, Gujjars, Syeds, Awans.

However you can still find villages that are predominantly inhabited by Pashto speakers. Even though the majority of Chach Pathans may no longer speak Pashto as their mother tongue, they still zealously guard the Pukhtoonwali/Pashtunwali traditions of badla, jirga, parda, ghairat, hujra, malmasti, etc.

According to the Gazetteer of Rawalpindi, Hazro was "The scene of the great battle in which, in AD 1008, Sultan Mahmud Ghazni defeated the united forces of the Rajas of Hindustan and the infidels of the Punjab with a slaughter of 20,000 men, it was afterwards fixed upon by some of the Pathan followers of that chieftain to be the site of the colony.

During British Rule the town of Hazro became part of Attock Tehsil, the municipality of Attock was created in 1867 and the North-Western Railway connected the town to Lawrencepur. By the 20th century the town was surrounded by rich cultivation, and had a flourishing trade, chiefly in tobacco and sugar. The population according to the 1901 census of India was 9,799. According to the Gazetteer of Rawalpindi, Hazro had a significant Hindu population which was "half Pathan, half Hindu.

Villages around Hazro

Chachh; being an historic region contains several historical landscape buildings and architectural monuments. For-example, Mithi Jamia Masjid in Shaamsabad (7 km from Hazro) is almost 300 yrs old. A brief summary of the location and distance of other small towns and villages from Harzo includes;

• Rahmun 0.4735 km.

• Bhangi 0.7459 km.

• Pirdad 0.7807 km. Famous Personalities Muhammad Umar Khan Superintendent of Police, Computer Engineer Mohammad Faisal Khan, and Mohammad Asim Khan M.Phil (Mechanical Engineering) from Sheffield Hallam University, the UK.
• Shahbazgarhi 0.9166 km.

• Mararia 1.5663 km.

• Paihti 1.7455 km.

* Pandak 1.7766 km.

• Pirzai 1.9824 km.

• Lakori Tatari 2.077 km.

• Pinjwana 2.2101 km.

• Garhi Alizai 2.2688 km.

• Khagwani 2.3125 km.

• Dhok Shah Dher 2.3284 km.

• Nartopa 2.4345 km.

• Kalu Kalan 2.4912 km. Famous Personalities: Col(R)Habib-ur-Rehman, Lt Col Malik Shahid,

Prof.Waris Khan, Dr.Naseer Akhwand Zada and Major Muhammad Zubair(Shaheed), Kalu Kalan is also famous for vegetable production.

• Shirani 2.5617 km.

• Sarwana 2.5723 km.

• Dhok Khagwani 2.6578 km.

• Bandawali Dad 2.8513 km.

• Musa.Hazro 2.966 km.

• Shah Dher 2.9677 km. .

• Darya 3.1908 km.

• Mian Shin Baba 3.5757 km.

• Kudlathi 3.7299 km.

• Behboodi 3.7685 km. (well known for the number of Ulama and Hafiz this village has generated compared to it surrounding villages)

• Shahid Baba 3.8262 km.

• Cheechi 4.1024 km.

• Khalilpura 4.1981 km.

• Saman 4.3452 km.

• Bahadur Khan 4.3859 km.

• Lokori 4.4519 km.

• Tatari 4.4519 km.

• Malak Mala 4.6081 km.

• Yasin Kalan 4.6881 km.

• Yasin Khurd 4.6881 km.

• Barazai 4.7101 km.

• Hamid 4.7177 km.

• Shinka 4.9852 km.

• Chalghazi Baba 5.0447 km.

• Mian Khadi Baba 5.1328 km.

• Bara 5.1902 km. Famous Personalities: Abdul Ghani Khan, PIA Security Manager (North)

• Allo 5.1989 km.

• Salem Khan 5.4995 km

• Azghar 5.4955 km.

• Adalzai 5.5591 km.Famous Personalities,..Allama M Hussain Advocate(MA-LL.B)Shagird_e_Rashid Dr Tahir_ul_Qadri

• Chauthali 5.7042 km.

• Saiden 5.7955 km.

• Ghorghushti 7 km. Famous for being one of the largest and richest town in Chach. Inayat Khel tribe is the KHAN tribe and owns about 75% of the town's land.

• Jalalia 7 km

• Malla Kalyaan 7 km

• Malhoo 8 km. Famous Personalities: Lt. Gen (r) Jahan Dad Khan Governor Sindh Province from April 84 till Jan. 1987 and current Head of Shifa Eye Trust and Pakistan Red Crescent Society

• Moman Pur 8 km

• Garhi Matani 8.9477 km

• Kamil Pur Musa 8.5 km

• kotkay 9 km

• Waisa 9 km.

• Rangoo 9.5 km

• Shadi Khan 10 km.

• Haider Khurd 12 km

• Kamal Pur Alam (the Barakzai's village)

Sports

The people of Hazro take great interest in sports including, cricket, football and Badminton. Kabadi is the treditional game of the chach, also the pole play GULI DANDA and Dog fighting and many more. One young cricketer from the region is 24 year old Yasir Ali who made his debut against bangladesh on september 3rd 2003.

Industrial background

Historically, Hazro is an agricultural town. During last five decades the industry has also flourished on competitive scale. The town is famous about its shoe and tobacco related products manufacturing industries. Also, there are some floor mills and timber processing plants to meet the needs of its population. Electricity and telephone were installed in the middle of fifties.

Educational system

The educational system is based upon public and private schooling. Parents can choose from either good English medium (expensive) private schools or free Urdu medium public. Government of Punjab funded and established a Government degree college in early 1990s to facilitate the need of higher education in the region.

Newspapers

Local newspapers

• Weekly Hazro, Editor Abdul Wahab;
• Weekly Teesra Rukh, Editor Khawar Chaudhry;
• Weekly Attock Times, (NAWAZ KHAN);
• Weekly Fikr-e-Watan

National newspapers distribution Daily Jang, Daily Express, Nawaiwaqat, Nation, The News and so forth.

Banks and financial institutions

Most of the public and private financial institutions/banks have their branches in Hazro. The most recent entry is of the Bank Alfalah's first branch opening with facilities such as, ATM, money gram, current accounts, deposit accounts and rental cars. Allid Bank of Pakistan, Askri and Bank Islami also have ATM.

Overseas Chachhies

A very large population of Chuchh lives in Britain and other part of the world. There is no exact census but there is a roughly estimation that 60% of the families have one or more than one member of family work/live across the globe. It is big source of foreign exchange for Pakistan and very flourishing business of currency exchange in Hazro and good appetite for private banks. There is huge investment of these overseas people in property market inside Chuchh, Islamabad and other surrounding areas.

See also

• Hazro (Attock)
• Chhachh
• Chhachi (Pashtun)
• Hazro Tehsil
• Alizai (tribe)
• Tanoli (Pashtun)
• Tahirkheli
• Attock District
• pathans
• Mughals
• Kashmiris