Upper Dir District (Pashto: پورتنۍ دیر اولسوالۍ, Urdu: ضلع دیر بالا) is a district located in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The city of Dir is its district headquarter. Geographically, it is located in the northern part of Pakistan. It borders with the Chitral district on the north, Afghanistan on the northwest, the Swat district on the east, and the Lower Dir district on the south. The District shares a 40 kilometer to 50 kilometer-long border with Afghanistan.
Contents
History
Dir was home to various popular civilizations. It has been the place where the Aryans, the Buddhists, and the Mughals survived. Dir was also a home to the Gandhara civilization. It was invaded by Alexander the Great.
In 1898, Muhammad Sharif Khan was declared the Nawab of Dir. He was succeeded by his son Nawab Aurang Zeb Khan in 1904, who ruled until his death in 1925. Subsequently, his son Shah Jehan Khan succeeded him; Shah ruled the state for almost 35 years. At the time of the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Dir was still a princely state, separated from Pakistan. It was no later than 1969 when it was annexed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Until 1996, Dir was a unit combined district. However, in 1996, the Dir District was divided into Upper and Lower Dir districts.
Demographics
Population
As of the 2023 census, Upper Dir district has 149,536 households and a population of 1,083,566. The district has a sex ratio of 98.36 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 46.77%: 62.76% for males and 31.67% for females. 392,214 (36.24% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 47,842 (4.42%) live in urban areas.
Language
Pashto is the predominant language, spoken by 91.02% of the population. Kohistani languages are spoken by 5.11% of the population, and 3.87% of the population speak 'Other' languages. Other minority spoken languages are Gujari, Kohistani, Hindko and Urdu. As per 2023 estimates by Tablue Public in Upper Dir District Gujari along with Kohistani is spoken by 4.92% of the population. Hindko is spoken by 0.51% and Urdu is spoken by 0.38%.
Religion
According to 2023 census of Pakistan, 2,415 (0.22%) of the people in the district are from religious minorities, mainly Christians.
Administration
Upper Dir District has four Tehsils.
National Assembly
This district is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-5 (Upper Dir).
Provincial Assembly
In the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are three seats for the Upper Dir district. Its constituency is PK-11, PK-12 and PK-13.
Towns
Except for the town of Dir and a number of rapidly growing towns along the main road, the population is rural. The population of Dur is scattered across more than 1,200 villages in the deep narrow valleys of the Panjkora and its tributaries.
Of these, notable villages include:
Popular places
Other popular places:
. Kadekhel Darra (Jogha,Malanga,Bagh etc,)
Notable people
Dr Zia Ul Haq (born 1980), university Vice Chancellor
Inayatullah Khan, JI provincial president and former Senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.