Current Time in Hafizabad, Pakistan

Hafizabad is a city in the north-eastern part of Punjab province, Pakistan, set in the fertile belt of land between the Chenab and Ravi rivers about one hundred kilometres north-west of Lahore. The countryside around it is a chessboard of irrigated fields fed by colonial-era canals, and the flat horizon is broken only by brick kilns, clumps of eucalyptus and the chimneys of rice mills.

With a population of roughly a quarter of a million in the city and well over a million in the surrounding district, Hafizabad is a medium-sized regional centre and the seat of Hafizabad District. Its reputation across Pakistan rests on a single crop. This is the heart of the basmati rice belt, and the town is one of the country's principal markets for husking, grading, packing and exporting the long-grained aromatic rice that reaches kitchens in the Gulf, Europe and beyond.

Local tradition traces the town's name to Hafiz Mairaj, an official of the Mughal emperor Akbar who is said to have founded or refounded the settlement in the sixteenth century. The area formed part of the Mughal domains, later fell under Sikh rule during the rise of the Lahore court, and passed to the British in the middle of the nineteenth century. British engineers transformed the region by building the canal network that turned dry scrub into productive farmland, and the railway that arrived soon afterwards fixed Hafizabad's role as a grain market. It became a separate district in 1991.

Hafizabad is a place of everyday working life rather than grand monuments. The old bazaar, the shrine of Sufi saints on the outskirts and the colonial-period railway station and clock tower are the familiar landmarks. Nearby lies Pindi Bhattian, associated in Punjabi folklore with the rebel hero Dulla Bhatti, and further afield the historic city of Gujranwala and the Chenab riverbanks attract weekend visitors. Rice fields flooded and mirror-bright in the monsoon are a sight in themselves.

Punjabi is the language of the street and Urdu the language of school and office. Cultural life revolves around family gatherings, the urs festivals held at Sufi shrines, kabaddi matches, horse and cattle shows and the enormous appetite for cricket. Local food is generous and rustic, built on rice, lentils, sugar cane juice and dairy from the district's herds.

The city benefits from an excellent position on the transport map. The M2 motorway linking Lahore and Islamabad passes through the district at the Pindi Bhattian interchange, where the M4 branches off towards Faisalabad and Multan, and regular trains and buses serve Lahore and Gujranwala. Education is provided by government colleges and a growing number of private institutions, while most university students travel to Lahore, Gujranwala or Gujrat.

Hafizabad is best understood as the working engine behind one of Pakistan's most famous exports, a prosperous farming town whose fortunes rise and fall with the rice harvest.