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Upper Dir District

Coordinates: 35°12′15″N 71°52′20″E / 35.20417°N 71.87222°E / 35.20417; 71.87222
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Upper Dir District
ضلع دیر بالا
پورتنۍ دیر ولسوالۍ‎
District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Top: Jahaz Banda in Kumrat valley
Bottom: Lowaro Top
Upper Dir District (red) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Upper Dir District (red) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country Pakistan
Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
DivisionMalakand
Established1996
HeadquartersDir
Government
 • TypeDistrict Administration
 • Deputy CommissionerGohar Zaman Wazir (BPS-18 PAS)
 • District Police OfficerMushtaq Ahmad (BPS-18 PSP)
 • District Health OfficerN/A
Area
3,699 km2 (1,428 sq mi)
Population
 (2023)[1]
1,083,566
 • Density290/km2 (760/sq mi)
 • Urban
47,842
 • Rural
1,035,724
Time zoneUTC+5 (PST)
Number of Tehsils6
Main language(s)Pashto ,[2]: 21  Gawri
Websitedirupper.kp.gov.pk

Upper Dir District (Pashto: پورتنۍ دیر ولسوالۍ, Urdu: ضلع دیر بالا) is a district located in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The city of Dir is its district headquarter. Geographically, it is located in the northern part of Pakistan. It borders with the Chitral district on the north, Afghanistan on the northwest, the Swat district on the east, and the Lower Dir district on the south. It shares 40 to 50 kilometers border with Afghanistan.

History

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Kalkot Kumrat valley,Kakad,{Doag Dair}°Upper Dir

Dir was home to various popular civilizations. It has been the place where the Aryans, the Budhists, and the Mughals survived. It was also a home to the Gandhara civilization. It was invaded by Alexander The Great.

In the sixteenth century, it was invaded by the Yousafzai tribe of the Pashtuns.[citation needed]

In 1898, Yousafzai Pashtun Muhammad Sharif Khan was declared the Nawab of Dir. He was succeeded by his son Nawab Aurang Zeb Khan in 1904, who ruled until his death in 1925. Subsequently, his son Shah Jehan Khan succeeded him and ruled the state for almost 35 years.[citation needed] At the time of the independence of Pakistan, in 1947, Dir was still a princely state, separated from Pakistan. It was no later than 1969, when it was annexed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. [3] Till 1996, Dir was a unit combined district. But in 1996, the Dir District was divided into Upper and Lower Dir districts.

Demographics

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Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1972 251,045—    
1981 362,565+4.17%
1998 575,858+2.76%
2017 947,401+2.65%
2023 1,083,566+2.26%
Sources:[4]

As of the 2023 census, Upper Dir district has 149,536 households and a population of 1,083,566. The district has a sex ratio of 98.36 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 46.77%: 62.76% for males and 31.67% for females. 392,214 (36.24% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 47,842 (4.42%) live in urban areas.[1] 2,415 (0.22%) of the people in the district are from religious minorities, mainly Christians.[5]

Languages of Upper Dir district (2023)[6]

  Pashto (91.02%)
  Kohistani (5.11%)
  Others (3.87%)

Pashto is the predominant language, spoken by 91.02% of the population. Kohistani languages are spoken by 5.11% of the population, and 3.87% of the population speak 'Other' languages.[6]

Tribes

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The people groups of the district are various Pashtun tribes of Afghan origin among other clans that settled in the region. These include the following tribes[7]

Administration

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Upper Dir District has 4 Tehsils.[8]

Wari and Larjam tehsils are part of newly created District Central Dir District.

National Assembly

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This district is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-5 (Upper Dir).[9]

Member of National Assembly Party Affiliation Year
Molana Asad Ullah Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 2002
Najum-din Khan Pakistan Peoples Party 2008
Sahibzada Sebgat Ullah Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 2018

Provincial Assembly

[edit]

In the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are three seats for the Upper Dir district. Its constituency is PK-11, PK-12 and PK-13.

Member of Provincial Assembly Party Affiliation Constituency Year
Gul Ibrahim Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PK-11 Upper Dir -I 2024
Muhammad Yamin Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PK-12 Upper Dir -II 2024
Muhammad Anwar Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PK-13 Upper Dir -III 2024

Towns

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Except for the town of Dir and a number of rapidly growing towns along the main road, the population is rural, scattered in more than 1200 villages in the deep narrow valleys of the Panjkora and its tributaries.

Of these, notable villages are

Division of Dir

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Popular places[10]

Notable people

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See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Upper Dir District.
  1. ^ a b "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 1" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
  2. ^ 1998 District Census report of Upper Dir. Census publication. Vol. 104. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. 2000.
  3. ^ "About Malakand Division". The Commissioner Of Malakand, The Government Of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Population by administrative units 1951-1998" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
  5. ^ "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 9" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
  6. ^ a b "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 11" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
  7. ^ Bergen, Peter; Tiedemann, Katherine, eds. (2013). Talibanistan : negotiating the borders between terror, politics and religion (first ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780199893096. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  8. ^ "District Dir Upper". Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
  9. ^ "Election Commission of Pakistan". Election Commission of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 10 November 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Pakistan: North West Frontier Province District, Tehsil and Union code Reference Map - Upper Dir". Relief Web. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2024.

35°12′15″N 71°52′20″E / 35.20417°N 71.87222°E / 35.20417; 71.87222

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