The City of Mianwali is located in northeast region of the Punjab. The city is located near to the Chashma Lake to southwest and Namal Lake to its northeast. The Chashma Lake is home to the Chashma Barrage, that houses a 184 MW power station. The Chashma lake also houses one of the two nuclear power facilities in Pakistan, the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant.
The city has an airport built near the old World War II aerodrome and known as M.M. Alam Base Mianwali. It is one of the major operational and training air bases of the country. The No. 1 Fighter Conversion Unit of the PAF is stationed here. The notable locations in the vicinity of the city include Chashma Nuclear Power Plant. The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (or CHASNUPP), is a large commercial nuclear power plant located in the vicinities of Chashma Colony in Mianwali District. Officially known as Chashma Nuclear Power Complex, the nuclear power plant is generating energy for industrial usage with four nuclear reactors with one being in planning phase in cooperation with China, supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Department of Energy of the United States. Established in 2000, the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant became operational when it joined the national grid system with China National Nuclear Corporation overseeing the grid connections of the power plant.
The Namal Institute is a private university about 20 minutes’ drive from the City of Mianwali. The institute is located on 30 km, Talagang Mianwali Road near Namal Lake. Initially it was established as an affiliated college of the University of Bradford, UK. Later in 2019, Namal College acquired a DAI (Degree Awarding Institute) status and thus became Namal Institute. There are further plans to turn the small campus into an education city, construction is already underway.
Demographics
Mianwali City has an urban population of 220,010, accounting for only about 20.82% of Mianwali District's Population. The rest of 79.18% of the rural population is spread around the district in small villages called Mauza’s. The average household size comes about to 7.1, that means on average 7 people live in one house. This is in line with joint family culture prominent in northwest regions of Pakistan. Mianwali has a literacy ratio of about 42.8%, considerably less than other urban cities in Punjab. As for male to female ratio, male inhabitants count for 63.8% of population and female inhabitants account for the remaining 22.2%. This number may somewhat vary due to Parda culture as census teams might have not been able to accurately access the number of females in each house.