was a former province of
Pakistan which existed from 1947 to 1955. The province covered an area of 160,622 km&
2 including much of the current
Punjab province and the
Islamabad Capital Territory but excluding the former
Princely State of
Bahawalpur . The capital was the city of
Lahore and the province was composed of four divisions (Lahore,
Sargodha ,
Multan and
Rawalpindi ). The province was bordered by the Indian states of
Punjab and
Jammu And Kashmir to the east, the princely state of Bahawalpur to the south, the provinces of
Balochistan and
Sindh to the southwest, the
Northwest Frontier Province to the northwest, and
Azad Kashmir to the northeast.
The
Partition Of India in 1947 led to the divisions of the
Punjab province into two new provinces. The predominantly
Sikh and
Hindu East Punjab became part of the new nation of
India while the predominantly
Muslim West Punjab became part of the new nation of Pakistan. The name of the province was shortened to
Punjab in 1950. West Punjab was merged into the province of
West Pakistan in 1955 under the One Unit policy announced by
Prime Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Ali . When that province was dissolved, the area of the former province of West Punjab was combined with the former state of Bahawalpur to form a new
Punjab Province .
At Partition there was a Muslim majority in West Punjab with significant minorities of Hindus and Sikhs. These minorities left West Punjab for India, to be replaced by large numbers of Muslims fleeing in the opposite direction. The official language of West Punjab was
Urdu but most of the population spoke
Punjabi using the
Shahmukhi alphabet.
The offices of of West Punjab and '''Chief Minister''' of West Punjab lasted from
August 15 1947 , until
14th October 1955 . The first Governor was Sir Francis Mudie with Iftikhar Hussain Khan as the first Chief Minister. Both the offices were abolished in 1955 when the province of West Pakistan was created. The last Governor of West Punjab (Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani) became the first Governor of West Pakistan.
