Salarzai 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 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 ...

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# ...

. Salarzai is the third largest of Bajaur District's seven tehsils.

Geography

Salarzai Tehsil, the third largest in Bajaur District, is 220 km² in area and encompassing one valley and several smaller ravines draining from mountains along the border with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Representing the northernmost region of Bajaur District, Salarzai shares a 22.35 km border with Khar Bajaur Tehsil to the south, a 17.05 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 west, a 9.83 km border with Afghanistan's

Dangam District Dangam District is situated in the eastern end of Kunar Province in Afghanistan. It borders Marawara district to the southwest, Asadabad district to the west, Bar Kunar district to the north, Nari district to the northeast and Khyber Pakhtunkhw ...

Kunar Province Kunar (Pashto: ; Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. Its capital is Asadabad. Its population is estimated to be 508,224. Kunar's major political groups include Wahhabis or Ahl-e- ...

to the north, and a 21.53 km border with

Lower Dir District Lower Dir District (, ) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Timergara is the district's headquarters and largest city. The Lower Dir district was formed in 1996, when Dir District was divided into Upper Dir and Lower ...

Samar Bagh Tehsil Samar Bagh is an administrative subdivision (Tehsil) of Lower Dir District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The other tehsils of the district include: # Adenzai Tehsil # Balambat Tehsil # Khall Tehsil # Lal Qilla Tehsil # Munda ...

to the east.

Demographics

Population

As of the 2017 Pakistani national census, Salarzai Tehsil has a population of 267,636 people, representing a +3.40% population increase from its 1998 census population of 141,750 compared to a +3.23% population growth in the overall Bajaur District. Residents of Salarzai comprise 24.53% of the Bajaur District population as of 2017.

Language

The vast majority of Salarzai 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

(KPK). As of 2017, 99.45% of Salarzai 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 ...

(267), Brahui (278), Sindhi (137), Punjabi (77), Saraiki (70), Kashmiri (63), Balochi (49),

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 ...

(5), and 'other' (32) as mother tongues.

Religion

As of 2017, 99.99% of Salarzai 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 31 residents recorded as

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 ...

, 2 belonging to caste systems, and 1 listed as 'other'.

Politics

Salarzai 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 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-20 Bajaur-II constituency. In both bodies, Salarzai 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