What
is Pukhtunkhwa?
Pukhtunkhwa or Pushtunkhwa is a historical name given to a region where
Pushtuns live in majority. The name was termed by Pushtun elders with the rise of Pushtuns under the leadership of Ahmad Shah
Durrani in 1747.The word Pushtunkhwa is made of two words. Pushtun which is a Nation and Khwa means heart. Khwa also means
side or towards. So for the sake of Dictionary, Pushtunkhwa means Pushtun Heart or Pushtun Side.But in common language it
is Pukhtunland.
Geography
of Pukhtunkhwa
What are the Parts of Pukhtunkhwa? At the moment it is not easy to draw a geographical
line between different parts of Pukhtunkhwa. The reason is that Pushtuns have been divided into different regions by other
powers.
Broadly
speaking an arbitrary division is as follows:
1. North Pukhtunkhwa…called
Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan
2. South Pukhtunkhwa…Pushtun areas of Baluchistan Province, Pakistan
3. Independent Tribal Areas of Waziristan and others
4. Afghanistan………….The
Motherland of Pushtuns
Apart from this certain areas like Attock and Mianwali in Pakistan
are struggling to keep their Pushtun identity.
The best terminolgy for these areas may be as:
1. Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, the former North
West Frontier Province, Pakistan
2. Bolan Pukhtunkhwa, Pushtun areas of Baluchistan Province, Pakistan
3. Attock and Mianwali Pukhtunkhwa,Pakistan
4. Waziristan Pukhtunkhwa, Independent Tribal Areas
of and others
5.
Afghanistan Pukhtunkhwa………….The Motherland of Pushtuns
|
|
|
Khyber Pukhtunkhwa
Province, spread over 74,521 sq km, has a population of over 3 million. Its administrative structure is very complicated.
It has:
1. Settled districts:
Abbottabad, Bannu, Battagram, Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Haripur, Kohistan, Kohat, Karak, Lakki Marwat,
Mansehra, Mardan, Nowshera, Swabi, Peshawar and Tank.
2. The Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) has a population of 831,000 and consists of Malakand Agency
and the districts of Dir (Upper and Lower), Chitral, Swat, Buner, Shangla, and Kohistan.
|
Independent Pushtun Tribal Areas |
|
These independent Pushtun tribal areas are now called Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA).Theses spread over 27,220 sq km with a population of 3,90,000. The seven Tribal Agencies are Bajaur,
Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. |
Please send us any details that you know about the topic and would like to add.Please highlight
if you feel some details are not correct and shall be removed.
