Moving to Multan

Agriculture, horticulture & mango export

Mango and citrus exporters, Fatima Group, Four Brothers, agri-input distributors

Multan is the centre of Pakistan's mango belt and one of its largest citrus and cotton markets. Horticulture export — packing, cold chain, phytosanitary certification, air and sea freight to the Gulf and beyond — is a real professional sector here rather than a rural adjunct, and it is seasonal in a way that reorganises the whole city in June and July.

Provincial administration for south Punjab

South Punjab Secretariat departments, divisional and district administration, Multan Development Authority

The 2020 South Punjab secretariat put an Additional Chief Secretary and a set of departmental offices in Multan, covering three divisions and a protected share of the provincial development budget. Public administration and policy work here is regional rather than municipal, which is unusual for a non-capital.

Health & medical education

Nishtar Hospital, Nishtar Medical University, Children's Hospital Multan, Multan Institute of Cardiology

Nishtar, founded in 1951, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in Pakistan and the tertiary referral centre for the whole of south Punjab and beyond. The catchment is tens of millions, which gives clinical and public-health roles here a scale the city's own population would never generate.

Textiles, ginning & agro-processing

Cotton ginners, oil and flour mills, Multan Industrial Estate manufacturers, fertiliser and pesticide plants

Cotton comes off the surrounding districts and is ginned, spun and processed here before moving north to Faisalabad or south to Karachi. It is a less glamorous part of the textile chain than Faisalabad's but it is where the raw material actually enters the industry.

Logistics & the motorway junction

Multan Dry Port operators, freight forwarders, M-4 and M-5 corridor haulage

Multan is where the M-4 from Faisalabad meets the M-5 running south to Sukkur and on toward Karachi — the hinge of Pakistan's motorway network. Combined with the dry port and an international airport, that makes it the natural distribution point for the whole south of the province.

Higher education & crafts

Bahauddin Zakariya University, Emerson University, the blue-tile and camel-skin workshops of the old city

BZU is the region's main university and a large employer in its own right. Separately, Multan's kashi tilework and naqashi camel-skin lamps are living crafts with export markets rather than museum pieces — one of the few Pakistani cities where a traditional craft is still a functioning industry.

Landmark · The fort mound, old city

A colossal octagonal brick-and-tile mausoleum built in the 1320s on the mound of the old fort — one of the great pre-Mughal monuments of South Asia and visible from most of the city.

Local tip: Go an hour before sunset, when the low light does something to the blue tilework that photographs cannot reproduce, and walk the fort mound around it afterwards. Dress modestly, remove shoes at the threshold, and expect to be welcomed rather than watched.

Food · Old city

The main bazaar of old Multan — spices, dried fruit, cloth, and the sohan halwa shops the city is known for.

Local tip: Buy the sohan halwa in a tin rather than loose, and go early: the lanes are genuinely impassable by mid-morning. The best eating here is breakfast — halwa puri and lassi from the stalls before the shops open.

Culture · Around the old city and Qasim Bagh

Working kashi tile kilns and naqashi camel-skin lamp studios, still producing the crafts that face every shrine in the city.

Local tip: These are workshops, not showrooms, and the way in is to ask at the shops that sell the finished work. A camel-skin lamp survives a flight badly and a tile does not survive one at all — buy small, and watch it being made rather than buying to take home.

Neighborhood · North Multan

The modern residential and commercial spine running out past BZU and Nishtar — where most professionals live and where the cafés, clinics and better schools are.

Local tip: Bosan Road is also where the Metrobus corridor runs, which makes the northern end of the city the one part of Multan you can genuinely live in without a car. That is worth more than it sounds in a city with these summers.

Nature · About 20 km north-west of the city

A barrage on the Chenab with river banks, birdlife and the nearest real open water to a very dry city.

Local tip: This is where Multan goes when the heat finally breaks in late September, and it is close to empty on a weekday. Go early, take everything you need, and treat the river with respect — the channel is fast and there is nothing resembling a lifeguard.

Culture · Bohar Gate, old city

A low, flat-roofed twelfth-century tomb entirely sheathed in blue and white kashi tile, wedged into a lane in the old city.

Local tip: Almost every visitor goes to Shah Rukn-e-Alam and almost none find this, which is a shame — it is older, it is smaller, and the tilework is arguably the finest in Multan. Ask for Bohar Gate and then ask again; it is invisible until you are in front of it.