Kohat Division is one of seven
divisions in
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 ...
's
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
province. It consists of five
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 ...
:
Hangu,
Karak,
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
,
Kurram, and
Orakzai.
According to the
2017 Pakistani Census, the division had a population of 3,211,458,
making it the
third-least populous division in the province, and it spans of area,
and this makes it the
fourth-largest division by area in the province.
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
is the division's largest city and namesake, with over 220,000 inhabitants. The division borders
Bannu Division to the south and west,
Peshawar Division
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
to the north and east, the province of
Punjab, Pakistan
Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...
to its east, and the country of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
to its northwest.
Districts
Districts are the administrative unit one level below divisions in the administrative hierarchy of Pakistan. Kohat Division consists of the following five
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 ...
:
History
In 1941, the area which today covers the division (excluding Orakzai and Kurram) was known as Kohat District. Kohat District was one of five trans-Indus districts in the North-West Frontier Province of
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. It was split into the Tehsils of Hangu, Kohat, and Teri.
Here is a description of the area given by the Imperial Gazetteer of India.
Kurram, on the other hand, was an agency in the province bordering Kohat District. It is also described in the Gazetteer.
At that time, the area that would later become Orakzai District was an unadministered patch of land known as Tīrāh. Its description is below.
At the time of the
One Unit
The One Unit Scheme ( ur, ; bn, এক ইউনিট ব্যবস্থা) was a geopolitical programme launched by the Government of Pakistan led by Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra on 22 November 1954 and passed on 30 September 1955 ...
policy, Kohat District
became a part of the then-much-larger
Peshawar Division
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
.
When the policy ended, though, Kohat District stayed in the division.
The area received full-fledged division status between the
Pakistani censuses of
1981 and
1998, and during the same time period, Hangu Tehsil and Karak Tehsil (formerly Teri Tehsil) were also upgraded, to district status (becoming
Hangu District and
Lakki Marwat District).
In August 2000, Kohat Division was
abolished along with every other division in the country, but was
reinstated (with all the other divisions of Pakistan) eight years later after the
elections of 2008.
In 2018, the
25th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was passed by the
Parliament of Pakistan
The Parliament of Pakistan ( ur, , , "Pakistan Advisory Council" or "Pakistan Consultative Assembly") is the federal and supreme legislative body of Pakistan. It is a bicameral federal legislature that consists of the Senate as the upper ...
and the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is located in Peshawar, the provincial capital. It was established under Article 106 of ...
. This entirely and fully merged the seven agencies of the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the six
Frontier Regions with the province of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
. With this merger, Kohat Division gained the agencies of Kurram and Orakzai, which became
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 ...
, and the
Frontier Region Kohat (which was fully merged into
Kohat District as Darra Adam Khel Subdivision).
Geography
Kohat Division has a total area of .
Kurram and
Karak Districts are the two largest districts in the division, having areas of and respectively. Together they make up about 55% of the area of the division.
Kohat District, despite being the most populous, comes in as the third-largest district in the province with an area of . The two smaller districts of the division,
Hangu (with an area of only ) and
Orakzai (with an area of ) make up the interior of the division, wedged between the three larger districts to their west and east.
The important
Kurram River (a major tributary of the
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmi ...
) begins in this division, in Kurram District.
Surrounding areas
To Kohat Division's northeast, you will find
Peshawar Division
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
, to the division's southwest,
Bannu Division can be found. To the southeast of Kohat Division, the divisions of
Sargodha and
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan ...
in
the province of Punjab can be found, and Kohat Division borders the country of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
to its northwest.
Demographics
As of the
2017 Census of Pakistan
The 2017 Census of Pakistan was a detailed enumeration of the Pakistani population which began on 15 March 2017 and ended on 25 May 2017. It was the first census taken in the country in the 21st century, nineteen years after the previous one in ...
, the division had a population of 3,211,458,
out of which there were 1,591,494
male
Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization.
A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...
s, 1,619,908
female
Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction.
A female has larger gametes than a male. Fema ...
s, and 57 people who identified as
Transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
; this made the
sex ratio
The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species dev ...
of the division 982 males for every 1,000 females, and makes it very unique among the divisions of Pakistan and across all of South Asia, as in most of Pakistan and South Asia, males are the majority. The division had 355,594 households, making the average household size of the division 9.03, one of the highest in Pakistan; 463,732 people in the division lived in an urban area, but the majority (2,747,726) lived in a rural area, making the urbanization rate of the division a 14.43%, far below the national average
Geographically, it is the Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa#Divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, fourth-largest division in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and has the fifth-largest (or third-smallest) population. It has a population density of , making it the second-least densely populated division in the province.
Kohat Division had nine urbanized municipalities in 2017.
Their names were (ordered by population)
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
,
Karak,
Hangu,
Sadda,
Tall,
Lachi,
Doaba,
Shakardara
Shakaradara is a village in Kohat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is renowned for its oil and gas reservoirs.
The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has recently, successfully explored four oil fields in the Shakardara wit ...
, and
Parachinar
Parachinar ( ps, پاړه چنار; ur, ) is a small Pashtun ( Turi and Bangash tribe) town which is the capital of Kurram District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Parachinar is situated on a neck of Pakistani territory wes ...
.
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
, the division's namesake and largest city, is situated in
Kohat District and has over 200,000 inhabitants. Kohat is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's
fourth-largest city and is a fast-growing city whose population grew at a rate of more than 3% every year between 1998 and 2017.
Karak, Kohat Division's third-largest city, is the largest city and namesake of
Karak District
Karak District ( ps, کرک ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is situated to the south of Kohat District and on the north side of Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts on the main ...
. Having a population just over 50,000, it is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's
24th largest city.
Hangu, Kohat Division's second-largest city, is the largest city and namesake of
Hangu District. Having a population just under 50,000, it is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's
27th largest city.
In 1998, Hangu was larger than Karak, but due to Karak's fast growth, has been overtaken.
Sadda, in
Kurram District
Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name K ...
, is the fourth-largest city in Kohat Division, with about 35,000 inhabitants. It was the second-largest city in the now-defunct
Federally Administered Tribal Areas and is the
40th largest city in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a fast-growing city (with a population growth rate of 3.75% every year between 1998 and 2017, which means its population more than doubled during that period) and is more than six times larger than
Parachinar
Parachinar ( ps, پاړه چنار; ur, ) is a small Pashtun ( Turi and Bangash tribe) town which is the capital of Kurram District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Parachinar is situated on a neck of Pakistani territory wes ...
, Kurram District's administrative district capital.
Orakzai District
Orakzai District ( ps, اورکزو ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas. With the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakh ...
is the only district in the division without a single urbanized area. It is entirely rural.
The division has one cantonment, the Kohat Cantonment, adjacent to the city of Kohat which had a population of 36,935, making up the division's entire military population. This made 1.15% of the entire population of the division active military personnel.
In 1998, the dominant language in the division was
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
, with over 90% of the population speaking it as their mother tongue.
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
is spoken by about 1% of the population, and
and
Saraiki are spoken by about 0.35% and 0.3% of the population respectively.
Of the remaining 5% of the population, most are suspected to speak the
Kohati dialect of
Hindko
Hindko (, romanized: , ) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punj ...
(a language for which official statistics were not collected in 1998), which was predominant in urban Kohat more than a century ago.
See also
*
Divisions of Pakistan
The four provinces, capital territory and two autonomous territories of Pakistan are subdivided into 38 administrative "divisions", which are further subdivided into districts, tehsils and finally union councils. These divisions were abolishe ...
*
Divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( ur, ), are the first-order administrative bodies of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. In total, there are 7 divisions, which are further divided into districts ranging from two to nine per divisi ...
**
Bannu Division
**
Dera Ismail Khan Division
Dera Ismail Khan Division is an administrative division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is the southernmost division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Location
Dera Ismail Khan Division borders Bannu Division (also Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in t ...
**
Hazara Division
**
Malakand Division
Malakand Division is an administrative division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan. It contains the following districts:
Districts
* Bajaur District
* Buner District
* Upper Chitral District
* Lower Chitral District
* Lower Dir Distric ...
**
Mardan Division
**
Peshawar Division
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
*
Hangu District
**
Doaba
**
Hangu
**
Tall
*
Karak District
Karak District ( ps, کرک ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is situated to the south of Kohat District and on the north side of Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts on the main ...
**
Karak
*
Kohat District
**
Kohat
Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...
**
Lachi
**
Shakardara
Shakaradara is a village in Kohat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is renowned for its oil and gas reservoirs.
The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has recently, successfully explored four oil fields in the Shakardara wit ...
*
Kurram District
Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name K ...
**
Parachinar
Parachinar ( ps, پاړه چنار; ur, ) is a small Pashtun ( Turi and Bangash tribe) town which is the capital of Kurram District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Parachinar is situated on a neck of Pakistani territory wes ...
**
Sadda
*
Orakzai District
Orakzai District ( ps, اورکزو ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas. With the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakh ...
*
Administrative units of Pakistan
The administrative units of Pakistan comprise four provinces, one federal territory, and two disputed territories: the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan; the Islamabad Capital Territory; and the administr ...
*
Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
*
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
*
Hindko
Hindko (, romanized: , ) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punj ...
**
Kohati
Notes
:A. Before 2018, the Kurram Agency (now
Kurram District
Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name K ...
), the Orakzai Agency (now
Orakzai District
Orakzai District ( ps, اورکزو ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas. With the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakh ...
), and the
Frontier Region Kohat were not a part of Kohat Division, but were a part of the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas, then outside
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...
.
:B. There were only three constituencies solely inside Kohat Division at the time of the
2018 Pakistani general election
General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Musli ...
, but there was a fourth constituency,
NA-51, that was made of regions from different divisions. NA-51 covered the Frontier Region Kohat in Kohat Division, but the area only makes up 33.15% of the population of the constituency and 3.69% of the population of the division, so it is omitted in the infobox. That seat was won by
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
The Muttahida Majlis–e–Amal (MMA; Urdu: , "United Council of Action") is a political alliance consisting of conservative, Islamist, religious, and far-right parties of Pakistan. Naeem Siddiqui (the founder of Tehreek e Islami) proposed su ...
.
:C. At the time of the
2018 Pakistani general election
General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Musli ...
,
Kohat District sent three representatives to the
KPK Assembly and
Hangu District and
Karak District
Karak District ( ps, کرک ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is situated to the south of Kohat District and on the north side of Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts on the main ...
sent two each, but
elections were held a year later (in 2019) in the areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that were formerly part of the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas. At the time of the 2019 elections,
Kurram District
Kurram District ( ps, کرم ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.The name Kurram comes from the river Kuramá ( ps, کورمه) in Pashto which itself derives from the Sanskrit name K ...
elected two representatives, and
Orakzai District
Orakzai District ( ps, اورکزو ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Kohat Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas. With the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakh ...
elected one representative, which add up to ten for the entire division. Once again, though, there was another constituency, PK-115, that was made of regions from different divisions. PK-115 (just like NA-51) covered the Frontier Region Kohat in Kohat Division, but the area only makes up 33.15% of the population of the constituency and 3.69% of the population of the division, so it is omitted in the infobox. The seat was won by
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (Fazl) also Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) or simply as Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Urdu: ; ; JUI-F) is a Deobandi Sunni political party in Pakistan. Established as the ''Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam'' in 1945, it is the result of ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Divisions of Pakistan