Malakand Division

Malakand Division ملاکنڈ ڈویژن ملاکنډ څانګه‎
Division
Malakand Division (red) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Headquarters	Mingora
Government
• Type	Divisional Administration
• Commissioner	Abid Khan Wazir (PAS)
• Regional Police Officer	Sher Akbar Khan (BPS-20 PSP)
Area
•  Division	31,162 km2 (12,032 sq mi)
Population  (2023)
•  Division	9,959,399
• Density	320/km2 (830/sq mi)
•  Urban	1,020,752 (10.25%)
•  Rural	8,938,647
Language Speakers [1]
• Speakers	Largest: Pashto (90.98%) Others: Kohistani (1.08%)
Literacy [2]
• Literacy rate	Total: (47.51 %) Male: (61.59%) Female: (33.38 %)
Website	cmd.kp.gov.pk

Malakand Division is an administrative division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Malakand is the second-largest division by population while Mingora, its capital, is the third largest city in the province. CNIC code of Malakand Division is 15. ^[3]

History

Until 1970, the area was known as the Malakand Agency. ^[4] In 1970, Malakand Division was formed from the princely states of Chitral, Dir and Swat (incorporated into West Pakistan in 1969) and an area around the Malakand Fort known as the Malakand Protected Area. The capital of Malakand Division is Saidu Sharif, with the largest city being Mingora. In late 2018, former Chitral District was bifurcated into Upper Chitral District, from Mastuj Tehsil, and Lower Chitral District, from Chitral Tehsil. ^[5]

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1951	...	—
1961	...	—
1972	...	—
1981	2,466,767	—
1998	4,262,700	+3.27%
2017	7,514,694	+3.03%
2023	9,959,399	+4.81%
Sources: [6]

According to 2023 census, Malakand division had a population of 9,959,399 ^[7] roughly equal to the country of Greece ^[8] or the US state of Michigan ^[9] or Chinese province of Hainan.

Ethnic groups

The major ethnic groups in the division are:

• Chitrali
• Gujjar ^[10]
• Kohistani
• Pashtun

District in Malakand Division

Malakand Division is comprising 09 districts i.e. Swat, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Dir Upper & Lower, Chitral Upper & Lower and Bajaur Tribal District with a total area of 32007Kms having population of 8.7 million. Formerly, the districts were princely states of Swat, Dir, Chitral and Malakand Protected Area (Malakand Agency). The States were merged in Pakistan by the Government of Pakistan in 1969 and were declared as Malakand Division. The area consists of snow-capped mountains, singing rivers, fruits laden orchards, flower decked slops and green meadows which attract tourists both at national as well as international level. It lies in the north of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa touching Karakuram Highway at Besham, Afghan border with Dir & Chitral and the strategic Wakhan strip is bordering Chitral. The mentioning of this area is found in the ancient Greek accounts & by other historians. It was a center of Aryan and later on rich Ghandhara civilizations before the Muslim rulers. Alexander the Great, king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia passed through this route to India in 327 B.C, attacking the biggest cities of the area, Massaga (Chakdara), Bazira (Barikot) & Ora (Odigram) and faced tough resistance. However, he could not survive for longer. This area also witnessed the invasion of Sakas (nomadic Iranian people), Kushans (syncretic empire) & white Huns (a race of largely nomadic peoples who were a part of the Hunnic tribes of Central Asia), this region also remained under the influence of Ashoka of Maurian dynasty. The flourishing of Buddhism had genesis in the reign of Ashoka as he adopted Buddhism in the later part of his life. The area then had more than 1400 monasteries and 18,000 monks in different parts and was a prominent center of Ghandhara civilization. ^[11]

List of the Districts

#	District	Headquarter	Area (km²) [12]	Pop. (2023)	Density (ppl/km²) (2023)	Lit. rate (2023)
1	Bajaur	Khar	1,290	1,287,960	998.4	26.26%
2	Buner	Daggar	1,865	1,016,869	545.1	43.75%
3	Lower Chitral	Chitral	6,458	320,407	49.6	66.10%
4	Lower Dir	Timergara	1,583	1,650,183	1,042.4	57.36%
5	Shangla	Alpuri	1,586	891,252	562.0	33.74%
6	Malakand	Batkhela	952	826,250	868.1	N/A
7	Swat	Saidu Sharif	5,337	2,687,384	503.6	48.13%
8	Upper Chitral	Booni	8,392	195,528	23.3	73.83%
9	Upper Dir	Dir	3,699	1,083,566	292.9	46.77%
10	Central Dir District	Wari	1,483	488,543	329.4	N/A

List of the Tehsils

#	Tehsil	Area (km²) [13]	Pop. (2023)	Density (ppl/km²) (2023)	Lit. rate (2023)	Districts
1	Bar Chamarkand Tehsil	13	3,574	104.41		Bajaur District
2	Barang Tehsil	159	90,082	100.27
3	Khar Bajaur Tehsil	238	301,778	102.81
4	Mamund Tehsil	250	358,190	103.29
5	Nawagai Tehsil	216	93,850	103.2
6	Salarzai Tehsil	220	316,767	101.01
7	Utman Khel Tehsil	194	123,719	100.66
8	Chagharzai Tehsil	218	125,949	577.75		Buner District
9	Daggar Tehsil	290	192,776	664.74
10	Gadezai Tehsil	472	197,466	418.36
11	Gagra Tehsil	217	179,087	825.29
12	Khudu Khel Tehsil	343	136,560	398.13
13	Mandanr Tehsil	325	185,031	569.33
14	Chitral Tehsil	6,127	211,374	34.5		Lower Chitral District
15	Drosh Tehsil	331	109,033	329.4
16	Adenzai Tehsil	372	378,915	1,018.59		Lower Dir District
17	Balambat Tehsil
18	Khal Tehsil
19	Lal Qilla Tehsil	216	247,381	1,145.28
20	Munda Tehsil
21	Samar Bagh Tehsil	419	427,714	1,020.80
22	Timergara Tehsil	576	596,173	1,035.02
23	Sam Ranizai Tehsil	280	353,291	1,261.75		Malakand District
24	Swat Ranizai Tehsil	672	472,959	703.81
25	Thana Baizai Tehsil
26	Utman Khel Tehsil
27	Alpuri Tehsil	582	366,772	630.19		Shangla District
28	Bisham Tehsil	184	121,279	659.13
29	Chakesar Tehsil	335	128,238	382.8
30	Martung Tehsil	188	103,205	548.96
31	Makhuzai Tehsil
32	Shahpur Tehsil
33	Puran Tehsil	297	171,758	578.31
34	Babuzai Tehsil	297	696,697	2,345.78		Swat District
35	Barikot Tehsil	419	220,148	525.41
36	Behrain Tehsil	2,899	270,623	93.35
37	Charbagh Tehsil	161	159,358	989.8
38	Kabal Tehsil	485	480,827	991.4
39	Khwaza Khela Tehsil	392	307,300	783.93
40	Matta Tehsil	684	552,431	807.65
41	Buni Tehsil					Upper Chitral District
42	Mulkhow Tehsil
43	Torkhow Tehsil
44	Mastuj Tehsil	8,392	195,528	23.3
45	Barawal Tehsil					Upper Dir District
46	Dir Tehsil	1,012	384,667	380.11
47	Kalkot Tehsil
48	Lar Jam Tehsil	1,039	119,396	114.91
49	Sharingal Tehsil	1,140	210,356	184.52
50	Wari Tehsil	508	369,147	726.67

Constituencies

Provincial Assembly Constituency	National Assembly Constituency	District
PK-1 Upper Chitral	NA-1 Upper Chitral-cum-Lower Chitral	Upper Chitral
PK-2 Lower Chitral		Lower Chitral
PK-3 Swat-I	NA-2 Swat-I	Swat
PK-4 Swat-II
PK-5 Swat-III
PK-6 Swat-IV	NA-3 Swat-II
PK-7 Swat-V
PK-8 Swat-VI	NA-4 Swat-III
PK-9 Swat-VII
PK-10 Swat-VIII
PK-11 Upper Dir-I	NA-5 Upper Dir	Upper Dir
PK-12 Upper Dir-II
PK-13 Upper Dir-III
PK-14 Lower Dir-I	NA-6 Lower Dir-I	Lower Dir
PK-15 Lower Dir-II
PK-16 Lower Dir-III
PK-17 Lower Dir-IV	NA-7 Lower Dir-II
PK-18 Lower Dir-V
PK-19 Bajaur-I	NA-8 Bajaur	Bajaur
PK-20 Bajaur-II
PK-21 Bajaur-III
PK-22 Bajaur-IV
PK-23 Malakand-I	NA-9 Malakand	Malakand
PK-24 Malakand-II
PK-25 Buner-I	NA-10 Buner	Buner
PK-26 Buner-II
PK-27 Buner-III
PK-28 Shangla-I	NA-11 Shangla	Shangla
PK-29 Shangla-II
PK-30 Shangla-III

References

1. "TABLE 11 : POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/URBAN, CENSUS-2023" (PDF).
2. "Literacy rate, enrolments, and out-of-school population by sex and rural/urban, CENSUS-2023" (PDF).
3. Divisions/Districts of Pakistan Archived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
4. Profile of Pakistan's Tribal Areas
5. "Chitral bifurcated into two districts". Chitral bifurcated into two districts - Chitral Today. Chitral Today. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
6. "Population by administrative units 1951-1998" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
7. "Area, population by sex, sex ratio, population density, urban population, household size and annual growth rate, census-2023" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-07-24.
8. US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 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 2011-09-30. New Mexico - 2,059,179
10. Inam-ur-Rahim; Viaro, Alain Mario (2002). Swat: An Afghan Society in Pakistan : Urbanisation and Change in Tribal Environment. City Press. p. 139. ISBN   978-969-8380-55-7. Gujars also organised themselves, particularly in Malakand Division, under their own independent ethnic political group (Gujar Qaumi Tehrik).
11. "About Malakand Division". cmd.kp.gov.pk. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
12. "TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB" (PDF).
13. "TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB" (PDF).

35°30′N72°00′E / 35.500°N 72.000°E / 35.500; 72.000