Taunsa Sharif

Taunsa Sharif or Taunsa is a Tehsil (subdivision) of Dera Ghazi Khan District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town of Taunsa Sharif is the headquarters of the tehsil.

Etymology

It is customary in Pakistan to use the postfix Sharif with the name of any place with some saints buried, hence the city is also called Taunsa Sharif.

Location

Taunsa Sharif is located on the Karachi-Peshawar Highway which is also known as Indus high way, it is approximately 975km from Karachi and 600km from Lahore.

Taunsa is also the location of one of the headworks on the Indus River called Taunsa Barrage, located several kilometres south of Taunsa city.

Demography

The main language of the area is Saraiki, whilst the city itself contains a range of ethnic groups, the adjacent towns and rural areas in the Tehsil are primarily occupied by Baloch tribes including the Nutkani Sakhani, Qaisrani, Buzdar, Nasuha, Malghani,Khetran and Kulachi.Jaffar Pathan, Most of the above mentioned tribes including Nasuha and Malghani are part of the Nutkani tribe, which is the largest tribe of the Tehsil while Qaisrani is the second largest.

The Shirani, a collection of Pashtun tribes, migrated from Barkhan Balochistan to Taunsa, Khawaja Shah Suleman came from Darug Balochistan [2]. The Kulachi tribe came from Kulachi Tehsil (NWFP) in 1867 The Sakhani, a collection of Baloch tribes, migrated from Balochistan to Taunsa.