Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

 

Counter-clockwise from top left:

Peshawar Museum, Malam Jabba Ski Resort, Khyber Pass, Swat Valley, Islamia College, Peshawar,

Lake Saiful Muluk, Naran

 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pashto: خیبر پښتونخوا‎  Urdu: خیبر پختونخوا‎), locally called Pakhtunkhwa (literally "area of Pashtuns") and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country. It borders the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the west and south, Gilgit–Baltistan to the north-east, Azad Kashmir to the east and Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory to the south-east. The province of Balochistan is located southwards while Afghanistan borders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west. The main ethnic group in the province are the Pashtun people; other smaller ethnic groups include most notably the Hindkowans, Dards, Chitralis (who include the Kalasha) and Gujjars.
The provincial language is Pashto, spoken by the majority as first language; Urdu, the national language, is widely spoken as a second language. English, the official language of Pakistan, is mainly used for official and literary purposes. The provincial capital and largest city is Peshawar.

History

Following independence, the North-West Frontier Province voted to join Pakistan in a referendum on in 2 July 1947 by a very small majority of 50.1%. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars, however, chose to boycott the polls along with other nationalistic and pro-India Pakhtuns. Some have argued that a segment of the population voted was barred from voting.

Afghanistan claims the territory as its own. After Pakistan's independence, Afghanistan was the only country to vote against Pakistan’s accession to the United Nations because of Kabul’s claim on the Pashtun territories located on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line.

The population of this region as per 1901 Census of the North West Frontier Province was 2,125,480, out of which Muslims were 1,957,777, Hindus were 134,252 and Sikhs were 28,091.

Administrative districts

The province consists of the following 25 districts, including 5 Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATAs):

• Abbottabad                                                  
• Buner
• Charsadda
• Chitral
• Dera Ismail Khan
• Hangu
• Haripur
• Karak
• Kohat
• Kohistan
• Lakki Marwat
• Lower Dir
• Malakand
• Mansehra
• Mardan
• Nowshera
• Peshawar
• Shangla
• Swabi
• Swat
• Tank
• Tor Ghar
• Upper Dir

Important cities

Abbottabad Bannu Balakot Besham Batagram Daggar Charsadda Chitral Dera Ismail Khan

Dir Hangu Haripur Havelian Kohat Kulachi Lakki Marwat Latamber Malakand

Mansehra Mardan Nowshera Martung Alpuri Peshawar Swabi Mingora Tank Shewa Adda