Hazara Division

Not to be confused with the Hazara region.

Hazara Division ہزارہ ڈویژن هزاره څانګه‎
Division
Hazara Division (red) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Headquarters	Abbottabad
Districts	9
Government
• Type	Divisional Administration
• Commissioner	Aamir Sultan Tareen (BPS-20 PAS)
• Regional police officer	Tahir Ayub Khan (BPS-20 PSP)
Area [1]
•  Division	17,064 km2 (6,588 sq mi)
Population  (2023)
•  Division	6,188,736
• Density	360/km2 (940/sq mi)
•  Urban	634,914 (10.26%)
•  Rural	5,553,822 (89.74%)
Native Speakers [2]
• Speakers	Largest: Hindko (55.99%) Others: Pashto (20.69%)
Literacy [3]
• Literacy rate	Total: (60.95%) Male: (71.42 %) Female: (50.33 %)
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Area code	CNIC: 13
Website	chd.kp.gov.pk

Hazara Division is an administrative division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located along the Indus River and comprises eight districts: Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, Battagram, Upper Kohistan, Kolai-Palas, Lower Kohistan, Torghar and most recently created Allai District.

Location

Hazara Division is bordered by Malakand and Mardan Divisions to the west, Rawalpindi Division (Punjab) and Islamabad Capital Territory to the south, Azad Kashmir to the east, and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north. ^[4]

History

On the dissolution of West Pakistan in 1970, Hazara District and the two tribal agencies were merged to form the new Hazara Division with its capital at Abbottabad. The division was initially composed of two districts (Abbottabad, and Mansehra) but within a few years, Haripur district was spun off from Abbottabad District and Batagram District was spun off from Mansehra District.

Hazara remained a district until its conversion into a division in 1976. In October 1976, Mansehra was given the status of a full-fledged district, which consisted of Mansehra and Batagram tehsils. Subsequently, in July 1991, Haripur Tehsil was separated from Abbottabad and made into a district. Thus only the old Tehsil of Abbottabad remained, which was declared as Abbottabad District.

In 2000, administrative divisions were abolished and the fourth-tier districts were raised to become the new third tier of government in Pakistan. At abolition it contained the 8 districts: ^[5]

Eventually, with all the administrative divisions being restored back in 2008, Hazara Division has returned.

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1951	...	—
1961	...	—
1972	...	—
1981	2,701,257	—
1998	3,505,581	+1.54%
2017	5,325,121	+2.22%
2023	6,188,736	+2.54%
Sources: [6]

Population

According to the 2023 census, Hazara Division division had a population of 6,188,736 ^[7] roughly equal to the nation of Bulgaria ^[8] or the US state of Missouri. ^[9]

Main ethnic groups

The main ethnic groups are:

• Hindkowans
• Gujjars ^{[10] [11] [12]}
• Pashtuns ^[4]
• Kohistanis ^[4]
• Khokhar ^[11]

Language

Languages of Hazara region (2023) ^[13]

1. Hindko (56.0%)
2. Pashto (20.7%)
3. Kohistani (14.6%)
4. Urdu (1.50%)
5. Shina (1.11%)
6. Others (6.50%)

Religious groups in Hazara Division (British North-West Frontier Province era)

Religious group	1881 [14]		1891 [15]		1901 [16]		1911 [17]		1921 [18]		1931 [19]		1941 [20]
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Islam	385,759	94.76%	488,453	94.61%	533,120	95.15%	572,972	95.02%	591,058	94.97%	636,794	95.03%	756,004	94.95%
Hinduism	19,843	4.87%	23,983	4.65%	23,031	4.11%	24,389	4.04%	26,038	4.18%	25,260	3.77%	30,267	3.8%
Sikhism	1,381	0.34%	3,609	0.7%	4,036	0.72%	5,489	0.91%	4,850	0.78%	7,630	1.14%	9,220	1.16%
Christianity	90	0.02%	236	0.05%	101	0.02%	178	0.03%	403	0.06%	432	0.06%	737	0.09%
Jainism	0	0%	3	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Zoroastrianism	0	0%	4	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	0%	0	0%
Buddhism	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	2	0%
Judaism	—	—	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Others	2	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Total population	407,075	100%	516,288	100%	560,288	100%	603,028	100%	622,349	100%	670,117	100%	796,230	100%
Note: British North-West Frontier Province era figures are for Hazara District, which roughly corresponds to present-day Hazara Division.

List of the Districts

Hazara Division contains the following districts: ^[21]

• Abbottabad District
• Batagram District (part of Mansehra District until 1993)
• Haripur District
• Kolai-Palas District
• Upper Kohistan District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and Kohistan District until 2014)
• Lower Kohistan District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and Kohistan District until 2014)
• Mansehra District
• Torghar District (part of Mansehra District until 2011)
• Allai District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and part of Battagram District from 1993 to 2023)

#	District	Headquarter	Area (km2) [22]	Pop. (2023)	Density (ppl/km2) (2023)	Lit. rate (2023)
1	Haripur	Haripur	1,725	1,174,783	681.3	74.88%
2	Battagram	Battagram	1,301	554,133	425.9	39.09%
3	Abbottabad	Abbottabad	1,967	1,419,072	721.6	77.34%
4	Allai	Allai Valley	521	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	Lower Kohistan	Pattan	642	340,017	529.5	22.05%
6	Mansehra	Mansehra	4,125	1,797,177	435.6	63.79%
7	Torghar	Judba	454	200,445	441.6	29.74%
8	Upper Kohistan	Dasu	5,440	422,947	77.8	19.05%
9	Kolai Palas	Kolai	1,410	280,162	198.7	18.80%

List of the Tehsils

#	Tehsil	Area (km2) [23]	Pop. (2023)	Density (ppl/km2) (2023)	Lit. rate (2023)	Districts
1	Abbottabad Tehsil	1,285	1,003,339	101.76		Abbottabad District
2	Havelian Tehsil	342	256,754	98.8
3	Lora Tehsil	187	98,717	97.22
4	Lower Tanawal Tehsil	153	60,262	98.88
5	Allai Tehsil	804	218,149	271.33		Batagram District
6	Batagram Tehsil	497	335,984	676.02
7	Ghazi Tehsil	595	151,839	255.19		Haripur District
8	Haripur Tehsil	834	836,058	1,002.47
9	Khanpur Tehsil	296	186,886	631.37
10	Bataira / Kolai	170	142,660	839.18		Kolai-Palas District
11	Palas	1,240	137,502	110.89
12	Bankad Tehsil	331	205,851	621.91		Lower Kohistan District
13	Pattan Tehsil	311	134,166	431.4
14	Baffa Pakhal	640	460,090	718.89		Mansehra District
15	Bala Kot Tehsil	2,376	310,339	130.61
16	Darband	102	51,702	506.88
17	Mansehra Tehsil	700	723,325	1,033.32
18	Oghi Tehsil	307	251,721	819.94
19	Tanawal Tehsil
20	Daur Maira Tehsil	86	50,503	587.24		Torghar District
21	Judba Tehsil	63	63,083	1,001.32
22	Khander Hassanzai Tehsil	305	86,859	284.78
23	Dassu Tehsil	1,958	148,914	76.05		Upper Kohistan District
24	Harban Basha Tehsil
25	Kandia Tehsil	1,926	165,232	85.79
26	Seo Tehsil	258	59,557	230.84

Constituencies

Provincial Assembly Constituency	National Assembly Constituency	District
PK-31 Kohistan Upper	NA-12 Kohistan-cum-Lower Kohistan-cum-Kolai Palas Kohistan	Upper Kohistan
PK-32 Kohistan Lower		Lower Kohistan
PK-33 Kolai Palas		Kolai-Palas
PK-34 Battagram-I	NA-13 Battagram	Battagram
PK-35 Battagram-II
PK-36 Mansehra-I	NA-14 Mansehra	Mansehra
PK-37 Mansehra-II
PK-38 Mansehra-III	NA-15 Mansehra-cum-Torghar
PK-39 Mansehra-IV
PK-40 Mansehra-V
PK-41 Torghar		Torghar
PK-42 Abbottabad-I	NA-16 Abbottabad-I	Abbottabad
PK-43 Abbottabad-II
PK-44 Abbottabad-III	NA-17 Abbottabad-II
PK-45 Abbottabad-IV
PK-46 Haripur-I	NA-18 Haripur	Haripur
PK-47 Haripur-II
PK-48 Haripur-III

See also

• Hazara
• Divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

References

1. "1951 - 1998 POPULATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS (AS ON 1st MARCH 1998)" (PDF). 1951-98 Population of Administrative Units (As on 1 March 1998).pdf. POPULATION CENSUS ORGANIZATION STATISTICS DIVISION GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN. January 2002. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
2. "TABLE 11 : POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/URBAN, CENSUS-2023" (PDF).
3. "Literacy rate, enrolments, and out-of-school population by sex and rural/urban, CENSUS-2023" (PDF).
4. About Hazara Division
5. Divisions/Districts of Pakistan Archived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
   Note: Although divisions as an administrative structure has been abolished, the election commission of Pakistan still groups districts under the division names
6. "Population by administrative units 1951-1998" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
7. https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2023/tables/kp/pcr/table_1.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
8. US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2011. Latvia 2,204,708, July 2011 est.
9. "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2011. New Mexico - 2,059,179
10. • Dikshit, K. R.; Dikshit, Jutta K. (18 February 2025). Land, People and Economy of Pakistan: A Geographic Perspective. Taylor & Francis. p. 152. ISBN   978-1-040-30677-2. The erstwhile Hazara division, incorporating Abbottabad, Haripur, extending further into Swat have a substantial population of Gujjars a pastoral tribe.
    • "Races and Tribes". kp.gov.pk. The Gujjars also live in Hazara. They are also numerous in Dir, Swat, and Bajaur, where they speak Pashtu, through on the borders of Dir and Asmar they retain their Indian speech.
    • Tyagi, Vidya Prakash. Martial races of undivided India. Kaps publisher. p. 236. From Peshawar to Swat Benaer, Gujjars are found coherently or incoherently settled. Hazara as per Aee-n-Akbari is known as Hazara Gujjar. Besides Gujjars are settled in mountain tracts of Hazara Kashmir and thingych. They are also found in good numbers in Chitral valley, Sheshi Koh, and Pushgal.
    • Dichter, David; Popkin, Nathan S. (1967). The North-West Frontier of West Pakistan: A Study in Regional Geography. Clarendon P. p. 54. Sprinkled throughout Kohistan and Upper Hazara, and even extend-ing into Buner are a nomadic-type people known as Gujars.
11. Dikshit, K. R.; Dikshit, Jutta K. (18 February 2025). Regional Geography of Pakistan: A Study in Spatial Relations. Taylor & Francis. pp. 3.10.2.1. ISBN   978-1-040-30665-9. Unlike other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Hazara division has a sprinkling of non-Pashtun population, represented by Gujars, Khokhars and other hill tribes who speak Hinduki (Hindko) as their mother tongue.
12. Nazia, Dr. (2014). GENETIC ANALYSES OF THE MAJOR TRIBES OF ABBOTTABAD AND MANSEHRA DISTRICTS THROUGH DENTAL MORPHOLOGY AND DNA ANALYSES. Department of Genetics Hazara University, Mansehra. p. 15. Gujar populations are spread all over the country in urban and rural areas of all the five provinces. They are found everywhere in Hazara division especially in the Mansehra, Haripur and Abbottabad districts. They once owned a tract of 84 villages in the center of Hazara including the Channai Hazara. The chief of Gujar Tribe of Hazara was the ever-mentioned Mokaddam Mir Ahmad Gujar, the jagirdar of Kot Najibulla (Watson, 1907). Gujars are in simple majority in Mansehra and Haripur Districts, especially in Kaghan Valley.
13. "Pakistan Census 2023" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
14. "Census of India, 1881 Report on the Census of the Panjáb Taken on the 17th of February 1881, vol. II". 1881. p. 17. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25057657 . Retrieved 16 June 2024.
15. Edward Maclagan, Sir (1891). "The Punjab and its feudatories, part II--Imperial Tables and Supplementary Returns for the British Territory". p. 14. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25318669 . Retrieved 22 June 2024.
16. "Census of India 1901. [Vol. 17A]. Imperial tables, I-VIII, X-XV, XVII and XVIII for the Punjab, with the native states under the political control of the Punjab Government, and for the North-west Frontier Province". 1901. p. 34. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25363739 . Retrieved 25 February 2024.
17. "Census of India 1911. Vol. 13, North-west Frontier Province : part I, Report; part II, Tables". 1911. p. 306. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25394102 . Retrieved 23 September 2021.
18. "Census of India 1921. Vol. 14, North-west Frontier Province : part I, Report; part II, Tables". 1921. p. 344. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25430163 . Retrieved 2 February 2023.
19. Mallam, G. L.; Dundas, A. D. F. (1933). "Census of India, 1931, vol. XV. North-west frontier province. Part I-Report. Part II-Tables". Peshawar, Printed by the manager, Government stationery and printing, 1933. p. 373. JSTOR   saoa.crl.25793233 . Retrieved 7 February 2023.
20. India Census Commissioner (1941). "Census of India, 1941. Vol. 10, North-West Frontier Province". p. 22. JSTOR   saoa.crl.28215543 . Retrieved 23 September 2021.
21. Divisions/Districts of Pakistan Archived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
    Note: Although divisions as an administrative structure has been abolished, the election commission of Pakistan still groups districts under the division names
22. "TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB" (PDF).
23. "TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB" (PDF).