Jhang - Let's make it an IT City

Pre-Partition Punjab; Jhang is marked green; red is present day Punjab

Last week I found a map of pre-partition Punjab and saw my city Jhang standing as very big and important one. You may also notice Shahpur, an other big city whereas Sargodha, Faisalabad (even Lylepur) and many other cities along the GT road are nowhere to be seen. What all factors changed the map to present day's Punjab province? Politics, governance, economy or military?
There's a very good paper describing changes in the segments of agriculture, industry, information and service in last 150 years.
How our region, specially my city was affected?
I would not start from hunter's age as it is very rare to be seen. Very small population in snowcapped mountains may still be living in this age, but it has no bearing on rest of the world.
The areas that purely stayed agri-based are still living in 19th century, hardly any change is visible in their culture and priorities. Jhang (and Shahpur) were unfortunate ones to stuck in 19th century. The cities that embraced the industry are far ahead (take example of Faisalabad).
An other contributory factor was distance from GT road; I remember that in my childhood, every new brand, promotion or offer appearing on TV was to reach Jhang with lapse of years. Going to Lahore used to fulfill our fantasy of enjoying Polka Ice-cream, as it was nowhere available in Jhang. Things used to reach Ghotki first and then Jhang.


Present age is info-technology age. If Jhang has missed the opportunity to develope in the industrial age, it must grab its rightful share in the age of IT. Number of computer institutes giving useless skills will not help. There is a large number of IT professionals (including myself) who are ready to work on IT development projects. No, it would not be based on funding; but based on consultancy and technical support. To establish a software house, the only investment needed is a PC; to sell product one has to make a cyber-mall on Internet. Genuine product and Idea from Jhang would have same opprtunity to be sold in USA/ Europe as the product of 'IT cities' around the world.
Be mindful, your DSL connection is directly connected to Info-Highway.