2. Introduction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the
country,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the smallest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest
province by population after Punjab and Sindh.
It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the south, Punjab to the south-east, as
well as Pakistani Administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and north-east, Islamabad
Capital Territory to the east and Autonomous state of AJK to the north-east.
It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west.
3. Administrative Divisions and Districts
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is divided into seven Divisions – Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Kohat, Malakand,
Mardan, and Peshawar.
Each division is split up into anywhere between two and nine districts, and there are 36 districts in the entire
province.
Below is the list of each district of Khyber Pakhtukwha.
Abbottabad District, Allai District, Bajaur District, Bannu District, Battagram District, Buner District, Charsadda
District, Central Dir District Dera Ismail Khan District, Hangu District
Haripur District, Karak District, Khyber District, Kohat District, Kolai-Palas District
Kurram District, Lakki Marwat District, Lower Chitral District, Lower Dir District
Lower Kohistan District, Lower South Waziristan District, Malakand District, Mansehra District, Mardan District,
Mohmand District, North Waziristan District, Nowshera District
Orakzai District, Peshawar District, Shangla District, Swabi District
Swat District, Tank District, Tor Ghar District, Upper South Waziristan District, Upper Chitral District, Upper Dir
District, Upper Kohistan District
4. Zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The Province is divided into five zones comprising the area listed below:-
Zone-1 :- Agencies of bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan, South
Waziristan and Frointier Regions attached to the Districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and
Dera ismail Khan.
Zone-2:- Districts of Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi and Mardan.
Zone-3:- Districts of Swat, Buner, Dir, Chitral, Kohistan, Shangla Par and Malakand Areas
(Swat Ranizai and Sam Ranizai and backward areas of hazara Division i.e. (1) Ilaqa Upper
Tanawal composed of Darband Area f Tehsil Haripur and Shergarh area of District Mansehra
and (2)merged Areas composed of Battagram including Hill Nilshang and Thakot, Allai Kaya
Khabbal and Goadoon Area.
Zone-4:- Districts of Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Kohat and Karak.
Zone-5:- Districts of Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra excluding their backward areas
included in Zone-3.
5. CHALLENGES OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA
The development challenges for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is based on an assessment of the
development opportunities and challenges facing the province. Information on the standard
of living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is provided by the national Household Income and
Expenditure Survey and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey. Some
of the problems are as under:-
6. POVERTY.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a population of about 22.2 million, growing at about 2.8% per annum.
The province has the highest incidence of poverty in Pakistan. 39.2% of the population in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa was poor, compared with 34.0% for Pakistan as a whole. Rates of poverty in rural
areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were 41.1% compared with 28.1% for urban areas of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa. The poverty rate amongst women is higher in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa than in other
provinces.
7. SECURITY:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been severely affected by increasing insecurity in recent years. This has been triggered
by insurgency originating in Afghanistan, but has exploited existing sectarian, tribal and factional tensions. The
range of security threats is now complex and includes bombings of officials and civilians, kidnapping and
increased levels of general crime. The implications of this insecurity are widespread:
economic opportunity and employment is declining and businesses are closing or moving out;
it is difficult to maintain basic public services in some areas;
the costs of maintaining law and order are greatly increased;
large groups of displaced people require basic support;
regional trade has been disrupted, reducing employment and revenue; and international funding for
development has declined markedly.
The situation is not uniform across the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As a result of the security situation,
development programmes need to work closely with local institutions, including governments at province and
district levels, and with local communities.
8. ENERGY CRISIS:
Pakistan, like other developing countries, is confronting the major challenge of the energy crisis
that not only is affecting the common men adversely but also hindering the economic and
industrial growth in the country. The energy crisis is an old phenomenon for Pakistan, but it
deepened in recent years. In addition to lacunae in the existing laws, the rise in global oil prices
due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the devaluation of the rupee had further aggravated the
energy crisis in Pakistan. That’s the reason, power outage in the name of load shedding has
become a new normal in the country. Like other provinces, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also facing the
brunt of load shedding where power stealing continued mostly in periphery areas of Peshawar, DI
Khan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Bannu, Karak, and Khyber districts. As a result, the power
distribution system gets overloaded and then trips down.
9. POPULATION CRISIS/PROBLEM:
At the time of independence, the population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was only 4.5 million. According
to 2017 Census, the population has increased to 35.525 million, therefore in roughly two generations,
population of the province has increased by 31 million, which is almost 7 times increase. The annual
inter- censual growth rate of 2.8% implies that if concrete steps for decreasing Population growth are
not taken, the population of this province will get doubled in 25 years compared to an average
doubling time of 29 years for Pakistan and 79 years for the South Asian countries.
Increase in population directly impacts sustainable development. More population means, more
schools for their education, more hospitals for healthcare, more water for their health and hygiene,
more opportunities for their employment thus requiring more resources for ensuring basic amenities
of life leaving little for industrial and infrastructure development.
10. Challenges/problems faced by farmers:
Farmers in KP faced serious challenges of low water.
use efficiency and lack modern technology,
skills and knowledge to engage in high value agriculture value chains.
This results in an underdeveloped rural economy with high vulnerability to climate changes.
