In common with the rest of Pakistan, the people of Sukkur District subscribe to three different medical systems:
Ayurvedic, the indigenous, traditional system; Unani, the ancient system of the Middle and Far East, attributed to the Greeks; and Homeopathic. The Federal Government has on several occasions attempted to regulate the practice of medicine of all kinds; one of its contributions was to call an All-Pakistan Tibb Conference (tibb: non-Western medicine) on 2 January 1987, in the course of which it was decided that hakims (traditional medical practitioners) should, after suitable training, be included in the Government Basic Health Programe. The Government of Sindh has, over the years, actively supported the development of healthcare facilities, earmarking substantial funds for training and for the construction of medical centres. Thus, in addition to numerous hospitals (see below), there are now Basic Health Units at Dodanko, Salehpat, Patni, Kandi, and Ghotki; Sub Health Centres at Qasimpur, Dadloi, Sultanpur, Ghulam Hyder Leghari, Sui Sharif, and Jam Sahib Samejo; Government Dispensaries at Arain Road, Dara Wahan, Au Wahan, Muhammad Pur, Moula Ali, Dapar Jatoi, and Bhurchundj Sharif; Rural Health Centres at Kandhra (2) and Dharki; and Taluka Hospitals at Rohri, Pano Akil, Ghotki, and Mirpur Mathelo.
There are also several other agencies which maintain fledical facilities in the District. The Railway Department runs two hospitals, as does the Jail Department, while the Police and the Irrigation Departments run one each. Sukkur

In 1978 a survey of handicapped children was carried out by Dr Khalid Masood, the Director of Community Service for the Rotary Club in Sukkur. The survey revealed that more than 3 per cent of the entire population consisted of handicapped children and adults from all four major categories of handicap, namely, physically handicapped, mentally retarded, blind, and deaf-mute. The Rotary Club committee decided to start a school for deaf-mutes. The Rotary High School for the Deaf opened in January 1979, in a building on Eidgah Road which was constructed with the help of donations from members of the Rotary Club and other philanthropists. It ceased functioning from 1996- 97 when the Rehabilitation Centres for Physically Handicapped Children (RCPHC) started functioning in the same year as the aims and objectives of both the Centres were the same. The Rehabilitation Centre was established by the Government and as such it was thought prudent by the Rotary Club members to let their school be merged with the Government sponsored institution in the interest for the betterment of the handicapped children. It now has ninety students, both boys and girls, who are given a general education plus training in carpentry, tailoring, typing, etc.

The green dome in Old Sukkur marks the tomb of Syed Khairuddin Shah alias Syed Ahmed Shah, who was a fifth- generation descendant of Pir Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jillani of the family of Piran. He was also called Jeay Shah or Jiay Shah. He was born in AD 1492 and spent his youth studying religion in Baghdad. He lived for some time in Bulri in Lower Sindh, but finally settled in Sukkur where he remained until his death in AD 1617. He became the founder of a spiritual dynasty; one of his successors, Mian Ghulam Mohammad, built this mausoleum in 1670. Houses of his descendants, or pirzadas, surround the mausoleum.

Sukkur is the biggest and commercially most flourishing city in Upper Sindh. It is also of historical interest. Located on the bank of the River Indus, Sukkur is a unique and beautiful sight, particularly after sunset. In this culturally and historically rich area of Pakistan, there had long been a great need for good quality educational institutions. In Lower Sindh, there was already a public school and a cadet college. It was therefore in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Upper Sindh that, in 1975, a beginning was made towards establishing a public school. With faith in Divine mercy and His patient guidance, teething problems, although innumerable, were gradually surmounted.

The Sindh Education Department co-operated by making available a building on Military Road. This building had been under-utilized, therefore its conversion to a public school was fully justified. The Federal Government initially made available a grant of over two million rupees. The citizens of Sukkur also extended a helping hand encroachments onto the school premises were halted, additional land was acquired, and more than 5,000 trees were planted. Later, lawns and playgrounds were created. Suitably qualified staff were recruited and the search began for a good Principal. Initially a Dutch gentleman from a Grammar School in Quetta was appointed. A Board of Governors, chaired by a Commissioner, was appointed by the Sindh Government to guide the school towards its future.

With the passage of time, more facilities have been added, for instance, another hostel, a mosque, and a squash court, and the school has been expanded and now goes up to classes XI and XII. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 students, from a catchment area comprising Sukkur, Jacobabad, Khairpur, Larkana, and Nawabshah.

Mullah/Mosque Schools ( Education )
Prior to the arrival of Islam in Sindh, education was imparted in the home. The Arab settlers and the converted Sindhi tribes, however, followed the practice of establishing a mosque as the focus of each community, and the mosques almost invariably had a maktab, or religious school, attached, which children attended from the age of seven. Schooling continued for five years; subjects included Arabic, and were taught with the help of a wooden tablet, or farahi, covered with Fuller’s earth (mait) on which the alphabet was written. The maktab was run by a mullah, an Akhund (teacher), or a pesh-imam (prayer leader) of the mohalla (community). He was not required to possess any academic or professional qualifications, only the respect of the community. He was not paid a regular salary, but received presents on the occasion of the successful completion of a course, e.g., the completion of nazirah, (reading the Arabic text only of the Holy Koran without translation) or a reading of an ameen, i.e., the special prayer offered at the ‘first’ completion of nazirah Koran. He was also fed by the community, for whom he led prayers in the mosque. This system of primary education grew spontaneously from the institution of the mosque in Muslim society; it was further developed during the rule of successive Muslim dynasties in Sindh and continued in use well beyond the advent of British rule and the introduction of the British education system. Separated from the Bombay Presidency in that year, and the Governor of the province immediately set up a department of education. The first Director of Public Instructions was K.B. Ghulam Nabi Kazi; he retired in 1939 and was succeeded by Dr U.M. Daudpota, who held the post for eleven years, during which time he was able to implement many of his ideas. These included: a six-month adult literacy course, from which just under 30,000 men and women benefited and which was followed up by the distribution of a free magazine containing news and hygiene information; mobile libraries; and a restructuring of primary education.

Pak-Saudi Fertilizer Ltd. (PSFL) is a large ammonia/urea complex with a daily capacity of 1000 metric tons of ammonia and 1740 metric tons of urea. The complex is situated 2.5 km north-east of Mirpur Mathelo, 104 km from Sukkur. The plants cover an area of 433 acres, while the housing colony for employees is spread over an area of 39 acres. There are 235 officers and 650 workers employed on the project. The project was financed by the Saudi Arabian Government and the Asian Development Bank as under:

Saudi Arabian Government Loan US$ 50 million

Saudi Funds for Development Rs 97 million

Asian Development Bank Rs 50 million

Work on the complex commenced on 18 April 1975 and was completed on 30 September 1980; commercial production of urea started in October 1980. The basic raw material is natural gas, available at the nearby Man gas field, about 8 kilometers from the plant. The gas is brought to the plant site through a 16-inch diameter pipeline and is used as fuel as well as feed stock.

The company had paid off all of its long-term foreign loans by the end of December 1990.

At Nagar Mathebo, or Mathila, some six or seven miles south-east of Ghotki railway station, are the ruins of an ancient fort. Its history is told in a verse still repeated by the people of the area:

The fort first appears in the historical record in AH 440 (AD 1047), when it was captured by Abul Hassan, the general of Sultan Muiddin. It was one of the six mud-built strongholds of Rai Sahasi II. Repairs were made in AH 495 by Rai Gharano. It subsequently changed hands several times; Raja Nind held it in the early fifteenth century, and on his death it passed into the hands of the Mahars as part of a marriage settlement between a Mahar and a Dhareja woman; the Mahars, however, never lived there. It continued to be a place of importance for some consider•able time (tradition says 900 years)—it had its owfl governor under the Emperor Akbar.

The bricks, beads and other ornaments, and fragments of stone carving found here are similar to those found at Vinjrot (see below). In addition, pottery balls the size of a man’s head have been found here, as at Brahmanabad. These were the missiles discharged by the ancient war engines known as manjaniks, or balistas, such as were used by the Arabs under Muhammad Bin Qasim during his conquest of Sindh.

All that remains today of the fort is a deserted mound and a commemorative stone set up by the author.

The Sukkur madrassahs owe their origin to a desire on the part of the Muslims of  Sukkur to promote education amongst their co-religionists. A Board was formed in 1906, with the local Collector as president, with the object of establishing a madrassah. That same year the foundation stone was laid for the first madrassah to be established in the District in modern times. The inscription on the stone reads:
Madrassah-rul-Islam, Sukkur
This foundation laid by H.E. the Rt. Hon. Lord Lamincton Ocmeccle R. Coxon, J.P., Governor of Bombay on 3rd January 1906.
In 1911, a project to build a boarding house was launched. One storey was constructed that year at a cost of Rs 17,236 an upper store y was added in 1941 at a cost of Rs 6,750. The building stands on Minaret Road, opposite the High School. It remained in the possession of the District Madrassah Board until 1960, when it was given by the Board to the Government High School and used as an annex until May 1962. It was then handed over to a management board, with a view to setting up a girls college in it. In October 1968, Agha Nizamuddin Girls College started functioning in the building. The District Madrassah Board Girls High School, run by the same management board, was nearby. After nationalization in 1972 both establishments were taken over by the Government and are still under its control.

What Is Madrasa or  madrassah: in modern usage, the Arabic word is the name of an institution of learning where the Islamic sciences are taught, i.e a college for higher studies, as opposed to an elementary school of traditional type (A. Kuttab). In medieval usage, it was essentially a college of Law in which the other Islamic sciences, including Literary and philosophical ones, were ancillary only.

The oldest alienation recorded in Sindh is a khairat (charitable grant) made in the days of Emperor Allauddin Khili (AD 1294-1316). The land revenues of Deli Aliwahan were given in their entirety to the children of Muhammad Makki of Rohri (deceased) as Madad Muash (maintenance and support).

Most of the land found in alienation at the time of the conquest (1843) was originally granted by the Talpur amirs, who succeeded the Kaihoras as the rulers of Sindh in the early 1780s. The total amount of land that was found in jagir and confirmed by Napier at the time of the British conquest was nineteen lakh bigahs (in excess of 950,000 acres). Land granted under jagir was exempted from the payment of land revenue under the Talpur regime.

About:  Talpur

The Yakoob Biscuit Factory, situated on Shikarpur Road, is the oldest and biggest biscuit factory in Sukkur Division. It was established in 1937 by a Hindu, when it functioned under the name of J.B. Mangharam Biscuit Factory. After partition, the factory was declared evacuee property and was allotted to Muhammad Yakoob; he later acquired ownership and changed the name. Fine biscuits continued to be produced for many years, but the factory has now turned its production over entirely to bread.
The factory employs about eighty workers, skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled, who have a registered workers’ union known as Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA).

::.Registered Office Address: SHIKARPUR ROAD, SUKKUR.
::.AUTHORISED CAPITAL: 2000000
::.PAID UP CAPITAL: 738800
::.CEO NAME: MR. MOHD YOUNUS YAKOOB
::.CEO ADDRESS: YAKOOB BISCUIT FACOTRY, SHIKARPUR ROAD, SUKKUR.
::.INCORPORATE DATE: 1/10/1981
::.AUTHORISED CAPITAL SHARES: 20000
::.PAID UP CAPITAL SHARES: 7388

YAKOOB BISCUIT FACTORY (PVT) LTD.
Shikarpur Road,Sukkur
Telephone: (92-71) 30655-30627

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