Uggu Chak

Uggu Chak (Template:Lang-ur is a populated village of Gujranwala District, Punjab, Pakistan. Uggu Chak is one of the biggest UC's of the Gujranwala City with strong political background and highly populated area. Situated on the Hafiz Abad Gujranwala Road, 13 Km west of the city of Gujranwala. It is having canal on one side of the village main road bisects the village in two parts. It has many hamlets like Sheikhanwala, Hondlanwala, Sajjadaywala and Pakka Khuh. Its surrounding villages and towns are Papnakha, Hardupur, Sahanki, Maan, Piru Kot and Qila Didar Singh.

Etymology

Uggu chak is an old village named after the name of a Muslim who owned this territory, known as Uggu. It was situated on the Tibba (Teppa- Persian) or high ground, allocated to the Warraich Calan. Including this village he owned the large area of land of the nearby villages. He used to graze their herds when this area was meadows in the past Later people turned this land in residential area and started calling this as Uggu Chak. It had a sizeable Hindu and Sikh population, which left it in 1947, at the time of partition. The schedule caste became Christians and continued living there. Some Sansi families converted to Islam. At the time of partition, people from Pattiala state and Amritsar District replaced the Hindu/Sikh population. There was another wave of migration from Kashmir. Hindu Dharamsala and the temple were used as residential places. There was no trace of Gurudawara in 1955 and it is doubted whether one existed in the pre-partition days.

Education

The Primary School was established for boys in 1955. It was under district board and later it became Government School. The girls' school was established in 1967, with the personal efforts of Maulana Mohammad Fazil, who daughter was the first teacher of that school. The boys school had produced many educated people who had gained a great name in their respective fields. They were physicians like Brig (R) Waheed Uz Zaman Tariq (a well-known Consultant Medical Virologist of Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, UAE and a scholar of Persian literature), Dr Saif Ur-Rahman (Consultant Haemato-oncologist of Cleveland, USA and engineer like Mian Asghar Ali.

There are three government Schools one for boys up to elementary level and One for Girls elementary school and one Primary School of Girls also present here. About 170 girls study in the GGES and 300 in GGPS. These schools facilitate the people for the quality education at a stones throw earlier young girls and boys had to travel to The Town Qila Didar Singh for continuing Education beyond class Five leading to many road side mishaps. Besides Govt schools few English medium type schools are also present in the village one of the oldest school known as Ikraam Ideal School. Most of the people are nowadays interested in sending their children to English Medium schools like Educators,Allied school,Smart School,City School,Spirit school, Dar e Arqam in Qila Didar singh town and its peripheries. The village has scattered shops and no organised market area, except one on the main roadside. There were two melas (annual festivals), which were celebrated; one by Hakim Rafie and other by Baba Rahm Rahm. Hakim Rafi's father Imam Din Uggu Chakya was a great calligraphist and traditional healer. Hakim Rafi himself did calligraphy with his son Mian Kalu and Abdu Rahman. Aziz watchmaker, Post Office head, Chaudhari Ata Ulla (Chairman of Union Council), Maulan Ahmad Ali, Haji Ramzan Nambardar, Haji Ramzan Chota, Master Ismaiel, Cahana Patwari, Zia Ullah Warraich, Hakim Nazir and Maulan Mohammad Fazil were prominent persons.

Mosque

There are almost five mosques, jamia and Quran-teaching instituts, peoples of distance areas come there and get education in these institutes. Maulana Mohammad Fazil (Late) shifted to that village and worked as Imam in 1945, till his death in 1997. He was instrumental in teaching hundreds of students and did philanthropic work. Famous scholar Dr Yousaf Goraya was his student. Maulan Yasir Irfan, his son is now the Imam and Kaheteeb of his mosque.