Khar Bajaur Tehsil (), sometimes shortened to Khar Tehsil, is an administrative subdivision (

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

) of

Bajaur District Bajaur District (, ), formerly Bajaur Agency, is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Prior to 2018, Bajaur Agency was the northernmost component of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a semi-a ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

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# ...

. Khar Bajaur is the second largest of Bajaur District's seven tehsils.

History

Khar Bajaur was part of the former

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

until the region was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on May 31, 2018.

Geography

Khar Bajaur Tehsil, the second largest in Bajaur District, is 238 km² in area and encompasses the district's largest, flattest mountain valley. Representing the center of the district, Khar Bajaur borders every tehsil in Bajaur District except for Bar Chamarkand far to the west. Khar Bajaur Tehsil shares a 13.10 km border with

Utman Khel Tehsil Utman Khel Tehsil () is an administrative subdivision (tehsil) of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Utman Khel is the fifth largest of Bajaur District's seven tehsils. Geography Utman Khel Tehsil, t ...

to the east, an 11.92 km border with Barang Tehsil to the southeast, a 21.08 km border with

Mohmand District Mohmand District (, ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an Federally Administered Tribal Areas#Administrative divisions, agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with merger ...

's Ambar Utmankhel Tehsil to the south, a 3.22 km border with Mohmand District's Pandiali Tehsil to the southwest, a 13.24 km border with

Nawagai Tehsil Nawagai Tehsil ()is an administrative subdivision (tehsil) of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Nawagai is the fourth largest of Bajaur District's seven tehsils. Geography Nawagai Tehsil, the fourth largest in Bajaur D ...

to the west, a 23.82 km border with

Mamund Tehsil Mamund Tehsil () is an administrative subdivision (tehsil) of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Mamund is the largest of Bajaur District's seven tehsils. History Bajaur was declared as a subdivision of the former Malaka ...

to the north, and a 22.80 km border with Salarzai Tehsil to the northeast.

Demographics

Population

As of the 2017 Pakistani national census, Khar Bajaur Tehsil has a population of 247,510 people and 27,044 households, representing a +4.04% population increase from its 1998 census population of 116,196 compared to a +3.23% population growth in the overall Bajaur District. Residents of Khar Bajaur comprise 22.63% of the Bajaur District population as of 2017.

Language

The vast majority of Khar Bajaur residents expectedly speak

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 ...

as their mother tongue, the predominant language of ethnic

Pakhtuns 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 ...

(Pashtuns) and of the derivatively-named

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Paki ...

(KPK). As of 2017, 98.78% of Khar Bajaur residents recorded Pashto as their mother tongue with other residents recording

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

(1,165), Brahui (416),

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

(189), Balochi (151), Sindhi (129),

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, the language of the Kashmiris ethnic group People with the nam ...

(108), Saraiki (86),

Hindko Hindko (, , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Pun ...

(11), and 'other' (127) as mother tongues. Khar Bajaur is the most linguistically-diverse tehsil in Bajaur District.

Religion

As of 2017, 99.91% of Khar Bajaur Tehsil residents reported belonging to the

Islamic faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, includ ...

along with 158

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, 53

Ahmadi Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ), is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed a ...

, 5 belonging to a

caste system A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

, and 14 belonging to 'other'. Khar Bajaur is the most religiously-diverse tehsil in Bajaur District.

Politics

Khar Bajaur Tehsil is politically represented in the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly of Pakistan, also referred to as ''Aiwān-ē-Zairīñ'', is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate of Pakistan, Senate. As of 2023, the National Assem ...

(the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the national

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

) in the

NA-8 Bajaur NA-8 Bajaur () is a constituency for the National Assembly of Pakistan consisting of the whole Bajaur District. Members of Parliament 2002–2018: NA-44 Tribal Area-IX 2018–2022: NA-41 Tribal Area-II By-election 2024 A by-election was h ...

constituency and in the

Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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 t ...

in the PK-21 Bajaur-III (Gujran, Pachagan, Paindakhel, Mandal, and Alizai sections) and

PK-22 Bajaur-IV PK-22 Bajaur-IV () is a constituency for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.It was created after 2023 Delimitations when Bajaur District Bajaur District (, ), formerly Bajaur Agency, is a district i ...

(remaining sections) constituencies. In both bodies, Khar Bajaur Tehsil (as well as Bajaur District and most of KPK) historically elects candidates from the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The party is led by Gohar Ali Khan since late 2023. ...

(PTI) party established by Pakistani

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and 22nd

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

, who is seen as a fierce advocate for the nation's Pakhtuns, many of whom feel disenfranchised by

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

References

Tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Populated places in Bajaur District {{Bajaur-geo-stub