Sialkot

Sialkot is an old industrial city in northeastern Pakistan in the populous Punjab province, near the border with India. Sialkot has about 502,000 inhabitants (2009 ).

Climate

Sialkot is located 251 m above sea level. The average rainfall per year is 950 mm, with precipitation falling in just the two months of July and August more than 500 mm. The average temperature is 22.7 degrees C. The highest temperatures of over 40 degrees C are recorded in Sialkot in May and June, but the months of July and August there are still about 29 degrees C. From December to February the temperatures are on average 12 degrees C.

Economy

Sialkot is known for two major global export industries: medical (surgical instruments ) and sporting goods.

Surgical Instruments

Based on an independent artisan tradition in forging daggers began with the development of small beginnings: the repair work for a local mission hospital. Since the 1970s, investments have led Tuttlingen medical technology companies to numerous joint-venture factories in Sialkot. Today it is the world's second largest cluster of Surgical Instruments with 2200 ( mostly small ) companies and 30,000 employees.

Sport Article

The beginnings of this industry lie in the repair of sporting goods for here at the end of the 19th century British soldiers stationed. Later, local workshops went on to also produce the sports themselves.

In the 1970s, local firms were able to secure the contract for the World Cup Ball " Tango", so that soon the football production played a significant economic role for the city and the city developed from there into a center for sporting goods industry. Today, about 75 % of the world production comes to soccer balls from Sialkot. In years when the World Cup which means a production volume of 40 million footballs per year. However, the soccer balls were not manufactured in Pakistan, because the prices were too expensive in Sialkot for the Football World Cup 2006. The contracts were awarded to Thai companies.

Overall, a range of 247 different sporting goods is established. So also quality hockey and cricket bats from Sialkot, for example, when playing in use worldwide. They are produced from about 10,000 mostly small and micro enterprises in the district of Sialkot with a total of about 100,000 employees (14% of the workforce).

Well-known products from Sialkot are:

• Motorcycle clothing
• Other leather goods such as leather pants, leather jackets, leather shoes, leather bags etc

Well-known personalities from Sialkot

• Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Urdu poet
• Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian politician
• Madan Lal Puri, Indian mathematician
• Muhammad Iqbal, Urdu poet
• Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, a Pakistani politician