The districts of Pakistan ( ur, ) are the third-level

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

s of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, below

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

and divisions, but forming the first-tier of

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

. In total, there are 166 districts in Pakistan, including the

Capital Territory A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any politica ...

, and the

districts of Azad Kashmir Azad Kashmir is a dependent territory of Pakistan. It has 10 first-order administrative divisions called "districts," and each district is divided into tehsils. Geographically, the northern districts of Azad Kashmir encompass the lower part of th ...

and

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

. These districts are further divided into ''

tehsils A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

and union councils''.

History

In 1947, when Pakistan gained independence there were 124 districts. In 1969, 2 new districts (Tangail and Patuakhali) in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

were formed, bringing the total to 126. With the

Independence of Bangladesh Independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, celebrated as Independence Day, from Pakistan. The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the Independence of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh ...

, Pakistan lost 20 of its districts and so there were 106 districts. In 2001, the number was reduced to 102 by the merger of the 5 districts of Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West and Malir to form Karachi District. The number of districts rose to 106 again in December 2004, when four new districts were created in the province of Sindh of which one (Umerkot) had existed until 2000 and three districts (Kashmore, Qambar and Jamshoro) were newly created. The new districts were carved out of Mirpur Khas, Jacobabad, Larkana and Dadu Districts respectively. In May 2005, the Punjab provincial government created a new district by raising the status of Nankana Sahib from a tehsil of Sheikhupura District to a district in its own right. On 11 July 2011, the Sindh Government restored again the districts of Karachi South, Karachi East, Malir, Karachi West and Karachi Central, then later in 2013, the district of Korangi was carved out of Karachi East District. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, a second-tier of government was formed from three administrative divisions into ten districts. In Gilgit–Baltistan, there are ten districts divided between the two regions of

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a h ...

and

Baltistan Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...

. In 2018, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and FATA agencies were converted into districts. Chagai is the largest district of Pakistan by area while Lahore District is the largest by population with a total population of 11,126,285 at the 2017 census. Quetta is the largest district of Balochistan by population with a total population of 2,275,699 at the 2017 census. Bahawalpur is the largest district of Punjab by area.

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

is the largest by area and Peshawar is the largest by population from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the population of 4,269,079 at the Census 2017. Sindh's largest district by area is Tharparkar and by population its Karachi West with a population of 3,914,757 at the 2017 Census. The combined population of the six districts of Karachi division is over 16 million at the 2017 census, giving an average population for these six districts of Karachi division of over 2.675 million each. Neelum and

Kotli Kotli ( ur}) is a city in Kotli District of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. It lies on the Poonch River, and the river contains several notable waterfalls including the Lala Waterfall near the town of Kotli and the Gulpur Waterfalls at the village of ...

are the largest districts of Azad Kashmir by area and population respectively.

is the largest by area and population both for Gilgit-Baltistan.

Administration

Deputy commissioner

A deputy commissioner (popularly abbreviated to "DC") is the executive head of the district. Deputy commissioners are appointed by the government from the Pakistan Administrative Service.

District council

A district council (or ''zila council'') is a local government body at the district level. The functions of a district council include construction and maintenance of roads, and bridges, building hospitals and dispensaries, schools and educational institutions, health facilities and sanitation, tube wells for drinking water, rest houses, and coordination of activities of the Union ''councils'' within the district.

Provinces and territories

List of districts by province and territory

Azad Jammu and Kashmir

Balochistan

Gilgit-Baltistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Note: Recently merged 7 agencies and Frontier Regions of FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa included in the list. Population and area of Frontier Regions is merged in respective districts.

Punjab

Sindh

N.B. All the figures require to be re-checked. Data entry error has occurred in Sindh Province.

Notes

References

External links

* from the Population Census Organization (Government of Pakistan) {{DEFAULTSORT:Districts of Pakistan

Districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Districts, Pakistan