Bhakkar District (Urdu: ضِلع بهكّر), is a district in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The district was created out of parts of Mianwali in 1982,[4] and has the city of Bhakkar as its headquarters. Part of its area consists of a riverine tract along the Indus, called Kaccha, while most of the district area lies in the desolate plain of the Thal Desert.[5]
Located in the west of the Punjab province, Bhakkar district is bordered by Layyah to the south, Jhang to the southeast, Dera Ismail Khan to the west, Khushab to the northeast, and Mianwali to the north.
Administration
The district is administratively divided into four Tehsils and 64 Union Councils. The Tehsils are:[6]
At the time of the 2023 census, 79.42% of the population spoke Saraiki, 9.73% Punjabi, 7.5% Urdu and 2.41% Pashto as their first language.[14]
Education
According to the census held in 2017, the literacy rate of Bhakkar is about 55%. There are 19 colleges, and 1300 primary, elementary, secondary, and higher secondary schools.
^1941 figures are for Bhakkar tehsil of the then Mianwali District, which roughly corresponds to present-day Bhakkar district. Historic district borders may not be an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the historic Punjab Province region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases.
^1998 District Census report of Bhakkar. Census publication. Vol. 74. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. 2000.
^Divisions/Districts of PakistanArchived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine Note: Although divisions as an administrative structure has been abolished, the election commission of Pakistan still groups districts under the division names
