Toba Tek Singh

Toba Tek Singh ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ
A Haveli in Toba Tek Singh district shahbaz chowk
Coordinates: 30°58′34″N 72°28′48″E / 30.976°N 72.480°E / 30.976; 72.480Coordinates: 30°58′34″N 72°28′48″E / 30.976°N 72.480°E / 30.976; 72.480
Country	Pakistan
Province	Punjab
Area
• Total	3,252 km2 (1,256 sq mi)
Elevation	149 m (489 ft)
Population (1998)
• Total	284,797
• Density	498/km2 (1,290/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC+5)
Number of towns	6
Number of Union councils	3
Website	www.tobateksingh.gov.pk

Toba Tek Singh (Punjabi(Shahmukhi)/Urdu: ٹوبہ ٹیک سنگھ‎) is a city and tehsil of Toba Tek Singh District in the Pakistani province of Punjab.

In the memory of a Sikh saint is enlivened by a city. Before Tek Singh came and lodged here, it was a deserted place by the pond (Toba in the local language). He made it a point to service thirsty passers-by from this pond. Years later, his act of charity founded the city, which is now named after him, Toba Tek Singh.

Toba Tek Singh was developed by the British toward the end of the 18th Century when a canal system was built. People from all over the Punjab (currently Indian and Pakistani Punjab) moved there as farmlands were allotted to them. Most of the people who migrated there belonged to Lahore, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur district. The Imperial Gazetteer of India described the tehsil of Toba Tek Singh as follows:

Tahsil of the new Lyallpur District, Punjab, lying between 30°50' and 31°23' N. and 72° 20' and 72°54' E., with an area of 865 square miles (2,240 km2). The population in 1906 was 148,984. It contains 342 villages, including Toba Tek Singh (population,1,874), the headquarters, and GOJRA (2,589), an important grain market on the Wazirabad -Khanewal branch of the North-Western Railway. The land revenue and cesses in 1905-6 amounted to 4.7 lakhs. The tahsil consists of a level plain, wholly irrigated by the Chenab Canal. The soil, which is very fertile in the east of the tahsil, becomes sandy towards the west. The boundaries of the tahsil were somewhat modified at the time of the formation of the new District of Lyallpur"

During the 1970s, when many Pakistani cities were renamed to change names given after British Rulers to their original or native names or more acceptable names to local population like Montgomery was renamed to its old original name Sahiwal, Toba Tek Singh remained one of the very few cities to maintain its original name mainly because of reputation of Tek Singh. In 1982 Toba Tek Singh, formerly a subdivision, was separated from Faisalabad District and became a separate district.