The Wazirs or Waziris () are a

Karlani Karlāṇī or Karrani () is a Pashtun tribal confederacy. They primarily inhabit the FATA region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and certain parts of eastern Afghanistan. In the 16th century the Karlani founded the Karrani dynasty, th ...

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 ...

tribe found mainly in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The Utmanzai Wazir are settled in

North Waziristan North Waziristan District (, ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . The capital ...

and Wazir Tehsil in Bannu, while the Ahmadzai Wazir and Mahsud Wazir are in South Waziristan, and in

Domel Domel () also spelled as Domail is a main town in Domel tehsil of Bannu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is also union council of Bannu District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Domel is inhabited mostly by Ahmadzai Wazir tribe of ...

Bannu Bannu (, ), also called Bani Gul or Bani (, ) is a city located on the Kurram River in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the capital of Bannu Division. Bannu's residents are primarily members of the Banuchi tribe and speak Banuch ...

. Those subgroups are in turn divided further, for example into Utmanzai tribes such as the Baka Khel and Jani Khel. The Wazirs speak the

Waziristani dialect Waziristāní (), also known as Wazirwóla (, meaning "of the Wazirs") and Wazirí, is a central Pashto dialect spoken in North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Waziristani differs in pronunciation and to a much lesser degree in grammar from th ...

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 ...

which is similar to the neighboring Banuchi and Dawari dialect but still distinct. The common ancestor of the Ahmadzai and Utmanzai is believed by them to be the eponymous W also ancestor to the Mahsud wazir tribe that has since taken a distinct and divergent path. Through Wazir, the tribes trace their origins to

and thence to the founder of the Pashtun lineage,

Qais Abdur Rashid Qais Abdur Rashīd or Qais Abdul Rasheed () is said to be, in post-Islamic lore, the legendary founding father of the Pashtuns. It is believed that the conception of such a figure was promoted to bring harmony between religious and ethnic identit ...

. Some western

ethnologists Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

consider them of being mix of

Arachosia Arachosia (; ), or Harauvatis ( ), was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Mainly centred around the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River, it extended as far east as the Indus River. The satrapy's Persian-language name is the et ...

n or

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

ethnicity. Although the Utmanzai and Mehsud tribes have a traditional rivalry and live in geographically distinct regions, the Ahmadzai and Mehsud communities co-exist peacefully and many head men are connected by marriage.

Notable members

* Haji Mirzali Khan Wazir *

Gilaman Wazir Gilaman Wazir (1 March 1992 – 11 July 2024; ; real name Hazrat Naeem; ) was a prominent Afghan Pashto poet and a senior member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). Known for his activism advocating for the rights of Pashtuns, Gilaman dedicat ...

Shah Muhammad Khan Shah Muhammad Khan is Pakistani politician. He had been a member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from May 2013 to May 2018 and from August 2018 to January 2023. He belongs to Narmi Khel tribe of Baka Khel - a sub group of Utmanz ...

Ali Wazir Muhammad Ali Wazir (Pashto: ) is a Pakistani politician who is the co-founder of a human rights movement, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). He had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023. During his stud ...

Arif Wazir Arif Wazir (; 2 May 1982 – 2 May 2020) was a Pakistani politician, activist, and a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). He was a member of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) and its president for the South Waziristan chapter. He ...

* Maulana Noor Muhammad *

Zartaj Gul Zartaj Gul Wazir () is a Pakistani politician who served as Minister of State for Climate Change, in Imran Khan ministry from 5 October 2018 until 10 April 2022 when Imran Khan was ousted by a No-confidence motion against Imran Khan, no-confidenc ...

Muhammad Iqbal Wazir Muhammad Iqbal Wazir is a Pakistani politician who was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from August 2019 to January 2023. Political career Wazir contested the 2019 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial election on 20 July 2019 ...

Ayesha Gulalai Wazir Ayesha Gulalai Wazir () is a Pakistani politician who was a former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2013 to May 2018. Early life and education Ayesha Gulalai was born in FR Bannu Domel wazir and received her M.Phil degree in Isla ...

* Mir Kalam Wazir * Mohammad Wasim *

Manzoor Pashteen Manzoor Ahmed Pashteen (born 25 October 1994) is a Pakistani Pashtun human rights activist against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights abuses against Pashtun population in Pakistan. Pashteen leads the Pashtun T ...

* Mulla Powinda *

Hakimullah Mehsud Hakimullah Mehsud (born Jamshed Mehsud; − 1 November 2013), also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud, was a Pakistani militant who was the second emir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan from 2009 to 2013. It was confirmed by TTP that he was killed in a U.S. d ...

* ABDULLAH WAZIR

Notable members

References

Further reading