From Bahawalpur City to the Cholistan Tobas

Bahawalpur District is two worlds. One is the old princely capital, with its palaces, the Islamia University and busy bazaars. The other is Cholistan, a desert that covers most of the district’s land, where herding families move with their camels, goats and cattle between rain-fed ponds called tobas. People from both worlds search for an NGO in Bahawalpur, and their needs are not the same.

PHWO (Peace and Humanity Welfare Organization) is a volunteer-run welfare body that people across Pakistan contact remotely. It has no office, camp or staff member in Bahawalpur or Cholistan; its single office is in Larkana, Sindh. If you can open a website on a phone, you can reach it, and there is never a charge.

Life in Yazman and the desert tehsil

The Census 2023 table shows why Cholistan is different. Yazman tehsil covers 18,374 square kilometres, far more than the rest of the district put together, yet only 8.8% of its 687,237 people live in towns. Water is the constant worry. Each hot season the tobas shrink, and the district administration holds meetings on drought preparedness and water supply for desert settlements (APP report). When ponds fail, families move their herds towards canal areas, children miss school, and animals, which are the family’s savings, are sold cheaply or die.

For a Cholistani household, the practical requests are usually ration, animal losses, medical costs after a long journey to hospital, and debt to shopkeepers who gave credit through the dry months.

How to ask PHWO for help from Bahawalpur

1. Open the request help page, or ask someone with a smartphone to do it for you.
2. Write who you are, where you live (chak number, tehsil), and what you need: ration, debt, fees, a laptop, medical bills or losses from drought or flood.
3. Add a clear live photo of yourself, and explain your need in Saraiki, Urdu or Punjabi.

Volunteers verify the details. PHWO arranges support only when it can confirm a need and has a way to meet it, so a request is not a guarantee, and there is no promised date. Anyone who asks you to pay a fee to ‘speed up’ your request is not from PHWO.

Bahawalpur District at a glance

• Population: 4,284,964 (Census 2023).
• Urban share: 37.8%.
• Tehsils: Bahawalpur City, Bahawalpur Saddar, Ahmadpur East, Hasilpur, Khairpur Tamewali and Yazman.
• Language: Saraiki is the main mother tongue, with Punjabi strong in the canal colonies around Hasilpur and Urdu common in the city.
• Livelihoods: cotton, wheat, livestock and government employment.

Free legal aid for families in Bahawalpur

The Lahore High Court has a bench in Bahawalpur, and the district’s family courts deal with maintenance, dowry, khula and child custody. Women in outlying chaks often have no idea where to start and no money for a lawyer’s first fee.

PHWO’s free legal aid lets you explain your case online. Volunteer advocates read it; hearings coming up soon and custody questions are placed at the top of the pile. An FIR is not required. Whether an advocate can take the case depends on who is volunteering at the time, so PHWO cannot promise representation.

Students at IUB and the colleges

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur draws students from the whole of the Bahawalpur division, many from farming and herding families. Some of them contact PHWO because they need a laptop or phone to follow lectures, submit assignments or earn a little from online work. If that is you, name your department and semester, explain what device you have (if any), and say how you would use a new one.

Government services worth knowing

• Bahawal Victoria Hospital, the teaching hospital of Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, and the Civil Hospital Bahawalpur.
• Rescue 1122, which also operates in desert areas.
• 15 for police and 1043 for the Punjab women’s helpline.
• BISP for Kafaalat and related programmes.
• The provincial Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal Department, plus zakat committees at local level.

Supporting Bahawalpur as a volunteer or donor

Advocates at the Bahawalpur bar can take on a PHWO case now and then, and others can help families in their own mohalla or chak fill in forms properly. Sign up through the volunteer page. Those who join are given a certificate, and written letters of appreciation and experience follow.

Landowners, traders, government employees and Bahawalpuris abroad can send a donation in cash or kind. Zakat and Sadaqah are spent only on people in need, with nothing taken out. The zakat calculator includes livestock and crops, which many rural givers ask about.

Marriage proposals through the Rishta Desk

PHWO’s Rishta Desk is free for any family in Bahawalpur, whatever its faith. It checks each profile with a live selfie and a PHWO staff review, and it never makes decisions for anyone. Matches are not guaranteed.

In the desert, marriages are often arranged within the same clan or neighbouring tobas. For families who want to look further, perhaps because a son now works in Bahawalpur city or in the Gulf, an online profile can widen the search without anyone having to travel.

Public services in Bahawalpur you can also use

• Bahawal Victoria HospitalPublic teaching hospital
• Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur BenchHigh court cases
• Rescue 1122Emergency services
• Benazir Income Support ProgrammeCash support for eligible families
• Punjab Social Welfare and Bait-ul-MaalProvincial welfare schemes
• District Administration BahawalpurDeputy Commissioner's office

These are public or independent services, listed to help you. They are not part of PHWO.

Frequently asked questions