Administrative units of Pakistan

The administrative units of Pakistan consist of four provinces, one federal capital territory, and a group of federally-administered tribal areas. Below this top tier, there are four more tiers of government including 27 divisions, more than a hundred districts (zillas), more than four hundred sub-districts called tehsils, and several thousand union councils.

History

Main article: Former administrative units of Pakistan

The administrative units as of 2010 derived from the administrative units inherited from British India. From independence in 1947 to 1971, Pakistan comprised two "wings" separated by 1600 kilometres of Indian territory. The eastern wing comprised the single province of East Bengal which included the Sylhet District from the former Indian province of Assam. The western wing was formed from three full provinces (Hazara (then NWFP), West Punjab and Sind), one Chief Commissioner's Province (Baluchistan), thirteen princely states and parts of Kashmir. In 1948, the area around Karachi was separated from Sind province to form the Federal Capital Territory. In 1950 Hazara (then NWFP) province was expanded to include the small states of Amb and Phulra and the name of West Punjab was changed to Punjab. The four princely states of southwest Pakistan formed the Baluchistan States Union in 1952.

The One Unit policy in was enforced in 1955, whereby the provinces and princely states of the western wing were merged to form the new province of West Pakistan with Lahore as the provincial capital. Simultaneously East Bengal was renamed as East Pakistan with Dhaka as the provincial capital. In 1960 the federal capital was moved from Karachi to Rawalpindi and then Islamabad when it was completed, followed in 1961 by the merger of the Federal Capital Territory into West Pakistan.

The One Unit policy was intended to reduce expenditure and eliminate provincial prejudices, but the military coup of 1958 signaled difficulties when the first military President, Ayub Khan, abolished the office of Chief Minister of West Pakistan in favour of Governor's rule. West Pakistan was dissolved in 1970 by the second military President, Yahya Khan, and four new provinces were created. East Pakistan became independent in December 1971 as the new country of Bangladesh. In 1974 the last of the princely states (Hunza and Nagar) were finally abolished and their territory merged with the Gilgit Agency to form the Northern Areas (now known as Gilgit-Baltistan). The Federally Administered Tribal Areas were formed from parts of Hazara, districts of Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan in 1975. The status of the Islamabad area was changed to a capital territory in 1981.

In August 2000 the "divisions" were abolished as part of a plan to restructure local government, followed by elections in 2001. Many of the functions previously handled by the provinces have been transferred to the districts and tehsils. In 2008, the new civilian government restored the former tier of "divisions" and appointed commissioners for each one.

Structure of administrative units

Pakistan's administrative units are as follows:

Map of Pakistan's administrative units

No.	Administrative unit	Local name	Capital	Population	Area (km²)	Population density (inh. per km²)
1	Balochistan (province)	بلوچستان	Quetta	6,565,885	347,190	18.9
2	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (province)	خیبرپختونخواہ	Peshawar	17,743,645	74,521	238.1
3	Punjab (province)	پنجاب	Lahore	73,621,290	205,345	358.5
4	Sindh (province)	سندھ	Karachi	30,439,893	140,914	216
5	Islamabad Capital Territory	وفاقی دارالحکومت	Islamabad	805,235	906	888.8
6	Federally Administered Tribal Areas	وفاقی قبائلی علاقہ جات	Peshawar	3,176,331	27,220	116.7
7	Azad Jammu Kashmir	آزاد جموں کشمیر	Muzaffarabad	2,973,000	13,297	223.6
8	Gilgit-Baltistan	گلگت - بلتستان	Gilgit	1,800,000 (estimate)	72,496	24.8
	Pakistan	پاکستان	Islamabad	132,352,279	881,889	166.3

The provinces are divided into 105 districts called (zillahs) (Template:Lang-ur). Zillahs are further subdivided into sub-districts called tehsils (Template:Lang-ur) (roughly equivalent to counties). Tehsils are used in all provinces except in Sindh province where the term taluka (Template:Lang-ur) predominates. Tehsils may contain villages or municipalities. Pakistan has over five thousand local governments. Since 2001, these have been led by democratically elected local councils, each headed by a Nazim (Template:Lang-ur) (the word means "supervisor" in Urdu, but is sometimes translated as Mayor). Women have been allotted a minimum of 33% seats in these councils; there is no upper limit to the number of women in these councils. Some districts, incorporating large metropolitan areas, are called City District. A City District may contain subdivisions called Towns and Union Councils.

The diagram below outlines the six tiers of government in Pakistan proper, together with an example; Lora is one of 16 union councils in Havelian tehsil, which in turn is one of two tehsils of Abbottabad district. This district is part of Hazara division which is a constituent of Hazara province, which is one of the four provinces of Pakistan:

Federal Government

Province (e.g. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

Division (e.g. Hazara)

District (e.g. Abbottabad)

Tehsil/Taluka/Town (e.g. Havelian)

Union Council (e.g. Lora)

See also

• Divisions of Pakistan
• Local government in Pakistan
  • Districts of Pakistan
  • Tehsils of Pakistan
  • Union councils of Pakistan
• Pakistani subnational abbreviations
• ISO 3166-2:PK

External links

• Government of Balochistan
• [http://www.Hazara.gov.pk/ Government of Hazara
• Government of the Punjab
• Government of the Sindh
• Government of the Islamabad Capital Territory
• Government of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
• Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
• Government of Gilgit-Baltistan