Upper Dir District
Template:Infobox Pakistan district Upper Dir is one the 24 districts of North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The district was formed in 1996, when the district of Dir was divided into Upper Dir and Lower Dir.
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[edit] Location
Upper Dir district is 3,699 square kilometres in area and formed part of the former Malakand Division, lying along the Afghanistan border between Chitral, Bajaur Agency and Lower Dir.
Almost all of the district lies in the valley of the Panjkora river which rises high in the Hindu Kush at Lat. 35.45 and joins the Swat River near Chakdara, where the district is usually entered, at Lat. 34.40. Dir is rugged and mountainous with peaks rising to 16,000 feet (4,900 m) in the north-east and to 10,000 ft (3,000 m), along the watersheds with Swat to the east, Bajour Agency to south west, Chitral to North, Lower Dir to south and Afghanistan to the west.
It is connected with the Kohistan District via the Badawi Pass.
[edit] People
The majority of the population in this area are Yousafzai Pashtuns speaking Pashto.
[edit] Administration
The district is administratively subdivided into six tehsils which contain a total of 31 Union Councils:[1]
| Name of Tehsil | No. of Unions |
|---|---|
| Barawal | 3 |
| Chapar | 1 |
| Dir | 13 |
| Kalkot | 3 |
| Khal | 3 |
| Wari | 8 |
| Total | 31 |
Upper Dir is represented in the National Assembly [2] and Provincial Assembly by one elected MNA and three elected MPAs respectively who represent the following constituencies: [3]
| Constituency | MPA | Party |
|---|---|---|
| NA-33 (Upper Dir)[4] | Najum-din Khan | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| PF-91 (Upper Dir-I)[5] | Muhammad Anwar | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| PF-92 (Upper Dir-II) | Bacha Salih | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| PF-93 (Upper Dir-III) | Hayat Khan | Independent |
[edit] Towns
The only motor road to Chitral reaches 10,234 ft (3,119 m) at the Lowarai Pass. However, the district headquarters, lies at only 2,700 ft (820 m), twice the altitude of Peshawar but much lower than the traditional and eponymous capital of Dir at the foot of the Lowarai. Except for them and a number of rapidly growing bazaar towns along the main roads, the population is rural, scattered in more than 1200 villages over the plains of Adenzai and Munda and the deep narrow valleys of the Panjkora and its tributaries.
Of these the largest are
[edit] Division of Dir
Dir district was officially split into Upper Dir and Lower Dir in 1996. Until 2000 as funds were not available to provide the accommodation needed at Dir town by government departments at a district headquarters, both districts continued to he administered by a single deputy Commissioner stationed at Timergara.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Template:Administrative divisions of the North-West Frontier Province
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