Usta Muhammad: from Muhammadpur’s leather trade to a new district

Introduction and location

Usta Muhammad is an agricultural town and area in Balochistan’s Nasirabad Division. The provincial government approved making it a district in 2022. According to the website of the Balochistan High Court, it lies in the basin of the Kachhi plain at an average height of about 55 metres above sea level. Annual rainfall is only about 90 millimetres. Winters are cold, and summers are dry and extremely hot.

One clarification is needed about the figures on this page. The 2023 census of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics does not list Usta Muhammad as a separate district. It lists it as a sub-division of Jaffarabad district. All census figures below therefore relate to Usta Muhammad sub-division. Official figures for the district’s present boundaries are not yet available.

According to the census, Usta Muhammad sub-division covers 399 square kilometres and has a population of 210,870. This includes 106,323 men, 104,541 women and 6 transgender persons. The density is about 529 persons per square kilometre, higher than in the other units of Jaffarabad. Some 30.65 per cent of the population is urban, and the average household has 7.1 members. The population was 185,984 in 2017, an average annual increase of 2.12 per cent.

One trend stands out. According to the census table, the population of Usta Muhammad Municipal Corporation fell from 76,753 in 2017 to 64,632 in 2023, an annual decline of 2.83 per cent. Over the same period, the rural population rose from 109,231 to 146,238. The Bureau of Statistics has not given a reason for the difference.

History

Official records give two accounts of the town’s name. According to the Balochistan High Court website, Usta Muhammad is named after Mulla Muhammad Khan Usto. The Sibi volume of the 1907 Baluchistan District Gazetteer mentions "Muhammadpur", also called "Usta", among the important villages of Nasirabad tehsil.

According to the gazetteer, the village was part of Nasirabad tehsil. Under the agreement of 17 February 1903, the Khan of Kalat handed over its administration to the British government in perpetuity. In October that year it became a sub-division of Sibi district. Muhammadpur was also the name of one of the tehsil’s nine "circles". The gazetteer also mentions a government levy post and a cattle pound at Usta.

After the creation of Pakistan, Usta Muhammad remained a judicial centre for the area. According to the Balochistan High Court, before 1992 the Sessions Judge Quetta heard the cases of Nasirabad Division in Usta Muhammad every month. The court here was established on 21 June 1983 and became the court of an Additional Sessions Judge in 1986. A District and Sessions Judge began work on 17 December 1998. After Nasirabad Sessions Division was split in 1996, Usta Muhammad came under the Sessions Judge of Jaffarabad. Usta Muhammad later became a separate sessions division.

Administratively, Usta Muhammad remained part of Jaffarabad district for a long time. According to The Nation, in June 2022 a spokesperson for the Balochistan government announced that the provincial government had approved making Usta Muhammad, Hub and Kharan’s Karezat new districts. Even so, the 2023 census counted Usta Muhammad as a sub-division of Jaffarabad. The date of the notification is yet to be confirmed.

According to reports of the administrative restructuring of July 2026, Nasirabad Division remains among the new eleven divisions. Its final composition has yet to be checked against the notification.

People and languages

Usta Muhammad is among the most multilingual areas of Balochistan. According to the 2023 census, no single language has a majority in the sub-division. Balochi is the mother tongue of 77,322 people (about 37 per cent), Sindhi of 56,154 (about 27 per cent), Saraiki of 50,102 (about 24 per cent) and Brahui of 24,592 (about 12 per cent). In the town, Sindhi is the largest language. Of 64,632 urban residents, 23,727 speak Sindhi and 19,990 speak Saraiki, while 14,366 speak Balochi.

This diversity is not new. According to the Sibi gazetteer, the Sindhi, Jatki and Balochi dialects were spoken in Nasirabad tehsil in 1901, and trade was mostly in the hands of Hindu traders.

According to the religion table, 97.7 per cent of the sub-division’s population is Muslim. There are 3,784 Hindus, more than half of all Hindus in Jaffarabad district as a whole in 2023. There are 378 Christians.

The gap between town and countryside in education is very large. According to the census, literacy among those aged over 10 is 38.17 per cent. It is 58.91 per cent in the town but only 28.01 per cent in rural areas. Literacy among rural women is 20.83 per cent. In all, 46,296 children aged 5 to 16 are out of school. According to the High Court website, the town has an agricultural development institute and a government degree college.

Economy

The economy of Usta Muhammad rests on farming and canal water. According to the Sibi gazetteer, in 1905 the Muhammadpur circle was irrigated by the Begari canal. The canal took off from the Indus and was the largest of the western canals of Jacobabad. Its Nur Wah and Sir Wah branches supplied water to the Khanpur, Muhammadpur and Sirwah circles.

According to the gazetteer, Muhammadpur was famous for leather work. In the rain-fed areas of Muhammadpur and Sirwah, "sajji" was also made. It is a soda compound obtained by burning a shrub called khar. The main crops of the area at that time were jowar, sesame, rice, cotton, indigo, wheat and gram.

According to the High Court website, crops here today include rice and wheat, and some farmers also keep cattle, sheep and goats. According to the same page, the area is occasionally hit by floods, as happened after Cyclone "Yemyin" in June 2007. The Kachhi Canal project, which began in 2002, is expected to allow better use of flood water.

Places of interest

Usta Muhammad town: The centre of the area and, according to the 2023 census, a municipal corporation with a population of 64,632. The district and sessions courts are located here.

Begari canal: According to the gazetteer, digging of the canal began in the Kalhora period. In 1851 its mouth was only 24 feet wide, and between 1852 and 1856 it was widened and lengthened.