Karak, Pakistan

For other uses, see Karak (disambiguation).

Karak
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Area
• Total	3,372 km2 (1,302 sq mi)
Population  (1998)
• Total	430,796 persons
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)

Karak (Pashto: کرك, Template:Lang-ur) is the headquarters of Karak District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is 123 km from Peshawar on the main Indus Highway between Peshawar and Karachi. It is located at 33°7'12N 71°5'41E. Karak is said to be the single district in Pakistan which is inhabited by only one tribe of Pashtuns — the Khattak.

Language

The predominant language of Karak is Pashto; the dialect is the softer "Kandahari" Pashto as opposed to the harder "Peshawari" dialect. Urdu and English are understood by majority however, they are spoken to a lesser degree.

History

Till 1956, the district was part of the princely state of Teri and was ruled by Nawab of Teri. Teri State was divided in to tappas (satrapies)- Teri, Seni-Khurram and Barak. In 1956 Teri State was merged with Kohat Tehsil. Thus between 1956 and 1982, present district of Karak was administratively part of Kohat. Karak was established as a separate district July 1, 1982. The district is predominantly populated by the Pashtun Khattak tribe.

There are several natural resources that have been discovered in Karak. The salt mines were well known in antiquity and a major source of salt for the Indian subcontinent into British imperial times. More recently oil, gas, and uranium have all been discovered. Oil and gas reservoirs have been found in in the towns of Makori, Noshpa Banda,Gurguri and Lachi circle

Teri is also very important village of Karak .The Nawab of Dist Karak and Khattak Nama etc was Ghazi Khan son of Darwaish Muhammad the brother of Akor Khan. Then Nawab Jaffar, then Nawab Allah hKhan and Nawab Abdullah Khan wife Mrs. Moran daughter of Nawab Behram Khan Son of Khushal Khattak.

Nawab Behram or Nawab Abdullah khan arrested the important Khan of Teri a.k.a Ashraf khan Hijre ,who died in Jail . See The History Book " Tareekh Murassa " but this history book is silent about Nawab Ghazi Khan the brother of Akor Khan and about Nawab Jafar .The father of Akor Khan and Ghazi Khan etc was Darwaish Muhammad and the father of Darwaish Muhammad Was Taman Baba. The son of Taman was Hassan (Tomb in Lachi on main High way Seddle/Kaye On top of hill(police Check post } and the father of Hassan was Sheikh Ali {Baig} Baba (Shrine in Lachi Bala).God may bless upon all (Syeds} Khattaks,because Syed Karlanr was Syed and we all are from them from mother side. and from father side we are all Khattak. by Umer Khel Khattak

Administration

There are three tehsils in the district. These include Karak, Banda Daud Shah and Takht-e-Nasrati. The district and tehsil headquarters of the are located in the main town of Karak. District level headquarters including for electricity, education, police and the health authorities are located in Karak.

There is one Electoral Constituency for National Assembly and two Constituencies for Provincial Assembly: PF-40 (Karak-1) MPA Gul Sahib Khan Khattak from PTI PF-41 (Karak-2) MPA Malik Qasim Khan Khattak from PTI and Nasir Khan Khattak MNA of karak from tehsil Banda Daud shah and village teri village of royal Nawab family.

Education

District Karak has the highest literacy rate after Islamabad and Wah. Since both Islamabad and Wah are mainly composed of temporarily migrated people, therefore Karak is ranked as the highest educated district.

Wildlife

Diverse wild life across the district with annual hunting season of quails, cranes, black and brown pheasants. It is a well known place for hunting quails (batair) and fowl. There are game reserves used for hunting by the VIPs. One such hunting place is Darab o’ Kachch abundant in partridges and quail. Hunting is a popular pastime in the area.

Forestry

Forests cover only 2.1 percent area of the Karak district, which is the lowest figure in the province. However, the forest Department has carried out mass forestation throughout the district especially along roads, which will achieve better results in future. There was one good project of Forest Department in Zarki Nasrati (Maree Sam)but due to some reasons Mafias Cut all the forest, now there is nothing, but peoples of the area still hoping that Forest department will start this project with new energy.

Festivals

There are a number of Festivals (میلہ) that take place on a weekly basis having very important role in the social, economical and Cultural infrastructure of karak. All the peoples of Karak attending these festivals as an entertainment, business and cultural events which bring them together on one plate form. These Melay use for Public announcement (Dandora) of any Public interest and also it provide a low cost Shopping facility to the peoples of karak and neighbours that are coming for buying their daily stuff, Details of these Melay as below.

1 Karak city mela on Sunday.

2 Metha Khel mela on Tuesday.

3 Ahmad Abad (Land Kamar) mela on Friday.

4 Takht-e-Nasrati mela(Awal Mela) on Saturday.

5 Machaki mela(Daryam Mela) Sultan Khel Banda,machaki banda on main road from takht e nasrati to shah slim (Bangi Killa) on Monday.

6 Teeri mela on wednsday.

7 Latamber mela on wednsday.

8 Sabirabad mela on monday.

Climate

The climate is hot during the summers, with temperature touching 40-45, and sand storms are common in Tehsil Takht-e-Nasratti. However, Lakkara(Shamshaki) regions are the coolest part in summer where people use blankets at night. The best time to visit is between Nov-April with lush green fields of wheat, grams.By the reason of the Khattak nationality is very hard-worker As a highly education ratio with very low crime rate Khattaks of Karak are playing very important role in bureaucracy, Education, health, Army, Corporate organizations etc. in all over Pakistan on very high positions