Harnai (, ) town serves as the administrative headquarters of

Harnai District Harnai (, ) is a district in the northeastern part of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Harnai is the principal town of this district and serves as its administrative headquarters. Until 2007, Harnai had been a tehsil of Sibi District, in ...

in the

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Until 2007, the town was in

Sibi District Sibi (Urdu and ; ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Balochistan (Pakistan), Balochistan province of Pakistan.Ziarat Ziarat (Urdu and ) is a city in the Ziarat District of the Balochistan (Pakistan), Balochistan province in Pakistan. It lies away from Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. Previously, it was part of Sibi district. It was announced as ...

Loralai Loralai (, ), also known as Bori (), is a Pakistani city that serves both as the division headquarter of Loralai Division and the district headquarter of Loralai District. It is located in the northeastern part of Balochistan province of Paki ...

and the provincial capital,

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

. The population is predominantly

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

followed by Baloch. The language spoken in the town is Tareeno, a unique and archaic dialect of

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

. The town is inhabited by majority of Pakhtun tribes like Tareen, Mushwani and Kakar and minority of Marri and Baloch.

History

The old name of Harnai was Zawara, meaning "interior of the Earth" in Local Tareeno Language. Some people still pronounced Harnai as Zawara. The name Harnai refers to an influential Hindu personality, Harnam Das, supposed founder of Harnai town, the capital of Harnai District. The town is quite close to Loralai, Ziarat, Sibi, Mastung and Quetta. Harnai is surrounded by imposing hills on all sides. The encircling hill ranges have the resounding names of 'Khalifat' and 'Zarghun'. Loe sar Nekan (Zarghoon Gar) with an elevation of 3578 Meters is the highest mountain peak in the province of Baluchistan in the southwest of Pakistan is also situated in District Harnai. Harnai proper has a population of about 100,000. The majority of the population of Harnai are Tareens and they mostly speak Tareeno a unique dialect of

, which is considered by some linguists to be distinctive enough to be classified as its own language. According to linguist

Prods Oktor Skjaervo Prods Oktor Skjærvø (sometimes written P.O. Skjaervo in English) is Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he succeeded Richard Frye as Aga Khan Professo ...

: "The Pashto area split into two dialect groups at a pre-literary period, represented today on the one hand by all the dialects of modern Pashto and on the other by Tareeno and by archaic remains in other southeast dialects." Until 2007, Harnai had been a tehsil of Sibi District, in August 2007 the Balochistan Government announced that the Harnai district would be created by splitting the Sibi district and forming the new district from Harnai and Shahrag as a tehsil and the sub-tehsil of Khost.Harnai is new district of Balochistan
Dawn (newspaper), Published 31 August 2007, Retrieved 18 April 2023

Geography

Harnai is surrounded by mountainous ranges, such as Koh e Zarghoon and Koh e Khalifat.

Climate

The minimum and maximum winter temperature of the area is -2˚C to 20˚C. The summer is extreme in the area and the minimum and maximum temperature fall between 20˚C to 48˚C. Harnai has a fertile rainy season during monsoon time. In general, Harnai has pleasant weather in winter season. The best months to visit Harnai is February to April.

Demographics

Population

As of the 2023 census, Harnai had a population of 14,277.

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Harnai District Populated places in Balochistan, Pakistan