Jacobabad – The Hot Spot

I traveled to Jacobabad once to find out how really hot it grows in summers (since it is famous for its consistently high temperatures and holds the record for the highest temperature recorded in Pakistan, 126° F (52° C) in the shade ) – and by God it makes one sizzles in summers when mercury rises above 50 degrees centigrade. 

I passed through the city on my way from Sukkur to Quetta. There are things one may like to see and visit when in Jacobabad (so did I). One is the Jacob’s Clock and the other is Victorial Tower, both attributed to its founder. It is said that the clock was assembled by Brigadier General Jacob himself, which now lies in a protective timber and glass case in the house where once Jacob lived. I had a drive through the congested central bazaar, but could not make my visit mortal as I did not have a camera by my side (those were times when camera mobiles had not seen their way into Pakistan). My next destination was Sibi before Quetta, which again is famous for its terrible summers.

Perhaps, Jacobabad is the only surviving city with its name attributed to the officers of the British Raj ( the city was founded by by Brigadier General John Jacob in 1847, who was the Commandant of the Sindh Horse and later became the first deputy commissioner of the Jacobabad district, and later died and buried here in 1858). 

Jacobabad has a sizeable Hindu community and one comes across their places of worships, “mandars” , very often. Jacobabad is located between the provincial boundaries of Sind and Balochistan provinces and is a railway junction with tracks branching off to Kashmore and Dera Ghazi Khan.