Okara, Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Okara is the capital city of Okara District
Okara District
Okara District is a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The Multan Road connects the district capital, Okara with tLahore 110 km away. Okara began as a small town about 40 km from the city of Sahiwal. It later become a city in its own right. According to the 1998 census, the district had a...

 in the Punjab province of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. The name Okara is derived from Okaan, a name of a tree, the city is located south-west to the city of Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 and is famous for its agriculture-based economy and cotton mills. The nearest major city from Okara is Sahiwal
Sahiwal
Sahiwal is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the administrative centre of Sahiwal District and Sahiwal Division. Sahiwal is approximately 180 km from the major city Lahore and is the city between Lahore and Multan...

 (formerly known as Montgomery) Okara is now the part of Sahiwal Division.

Okara has the largest storage capacity in Asia and is a fairly large district in Pakistan in terms of population. There are famous Pakistan military dairy farms, especially famous for their cheese situated in Okara. These farms are of the Pre-partition or British Indian Era. Mitchels farms also are located in the nearest town Renala Khurd in the Okara District. Okara postal code is 56300.

History

The city is a relatively new agricultural city, during the period of British rule
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 there was a jungle of Okaan where the city has been built. And from this the name has been derived. During British rule the area was part of Montgomery District
Montgomery District
Montgomery District was an administrative district of the former Punjab Province of British India, in what is now Pakistan. Named after Sir Robert Montgomery, it lay in the Bari Doab, or the tract between the Sutlej and the Ravi rivers, extending also across the Ravi into the Rechna Doab, which...

 and contained a large saltpeter
Potassium nitrate
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...

 refinery. At partition on of the two textile mills that Pakistan got was the one at Okara. In 1982 the city became the headquarters of the newly created Okara District. Okara has had a railway line since 1892. Okara is famous for its cattle breed known as Sahiwal and a water buffaloe breed known as Nili-Ravi. It is very rich in Livestock population and production. Livestock Production Research Institute Bahadar Nagar Farm is a very large Govt farm near the okara city, the distance from okara city is 14KM toward faisalabad road. The farm have large number of cows, buffaloes, bulls (for reproduction), goats and sheeps.

Administration

The city of Okara serves as district
Districts of Pakistan
The Districts of Pakistan are the second order administrative divisions of Pakistan. Districts were the third order of administrative divisions, below provinces and "divisions", until the reforms of August 2000, when "divisions" were abolished...

 and tehsil
Tehsil
A Tehsil or Tahsil/Tahasil , also known as Taluk and Mandal, is an administrative division of some country/countries of South Asia....

 capital and is itself administratively subdivided into ten Union councils
Union Councils of Pakistan
A sherwan or village council in Pakistan is an elected local government body consisting of 21 councillors, and headed by a nazim and a naib nazim...

.
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