Hazara Division
Hazara Division, located along the Indus River in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, serves as an administrative region of the province, encompassing nine districts: Abbottabad, Allai District[4], Battagram, Haripur, Kolai-Palas, Lower Kohistan, Mansehra, Torghar, and Upper Kohistan.[5]
Location
Hazara Division is located in the east of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - to the west it is bordered by Malakand and Mardan divisions of the province - to the south it is bordered by the Rawalpindi Division of Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory, to the east by Azad Kashmir and to the north by Gilgit-Baltistan.[6]
History
During the colonial era Hazara Division (then Hazara District) had been part of Peshawar Division[7] and was made up of three tehsils namely Haripur, Mansehra and Abbottabad [8] - following the dissolution of West Pakistan in 1970, Hazara District and the two tribal agencies were merged to create the new Hazara Division, with Abbottabad designated as its capital. Initially, the division comprised two districts: Abbottabad and Mansehra. Over the next few years, administrative changes led to the creation of two additional districts—Haripur was carved out of Abbottabad District, and Batagram was separated from Mansehra District.
Hazara functioned as a district until 1976, when it was formally upgraded to a division. In October of that year, Mansehra was granted full district status, encompassing the tehsils of Mansehra and Batagram. Later, in July 1991, Haripur Tehsil was separated from Abbottabad and established as an independent district. This left only the original Abbottabad Tehsil, which then officially became Abbottabad District.
In 2000, Pakistan abolished its administrative divisions, elevating districts to serve as the new third tier of government. At the time of abolition, Hazara Division consisted of eight districts.[9]
However, in 2008, administrative divisions were reinstated, and Hazara Division was formally re-established.
| Year | Event | Tehsil Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Hazara District and two tribal agencies merged to formHazara Division (capital: Abbottabad) | Hazara District included Abbottabad,Mansehra, and Haripur tehsils |
| 1970s | Haripur District created from Abbottabad;Batagram District created from Mansehra | Haripur Tehsil became Haripur District;Batagram Tehsil separated from Mansehra |
| 1976 | Hazara formally upgraded to division status;Mansehra becomes a full district | Mansehra District comprisedMansehra and Batagram tehsils |
| 1991 | Haripur Tehsil separated from Abbottabadand made into a district | Abbottabad Tehsil was then split intoHavelian and Abbottabad tehsilsforming the tehsils of Abbottabad District |
| 2000 | Administrative divisions abolished;Hazara Division dissolved | Districts functioned independently;tehsil structure remained intact |
| 2008 | Administrative divisions reinstated;Hazara Division restored | Hazara Division included Abbottabad,Mansehra, Haripur, Batagram,and later Kohistan and Torghar districts |
Demographics
Population
According to the 2023 census, Hazara Division had a population of 6,188,736[10] roughly equal to the nation of Bulgaria[11] or the US state of Missouri.[12]
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | ... | — |
| 1961 | ... | — |
| 1972 | ... | — |
| 1981 | 2,701,257 | — |
| 1998 | 3,505,581 | +1.54% |
| 2017 | 5,325,121 | +2.22% |
| 2023 | 6,188,736 | +2.54% |
| Sources:[13] | ||
The increase in population from 1981 to 2023 was 129.1% equivalent to an average increase of approximately 1.96% per annum.
List of the Districts
Hazara Division contains the following districts:[14]
- Abbottabad District
- Allai District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and part of Battagram District from 1993 to 2023)
- Batagram District (part of Mansehra District until 1993)
- Haripur District
- Kolai-Palas District
- Upper Kohistan District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and Kohistan District until 2014)
- Lower Kohistan District (part of Mansehra District until 1993 and Kohistan District until 2014)
- Mansehra District
- Torghar District (part of Mansehra District until 2011)
| # | District | Headquarter | Area (km2)[15] | Pop. (2023) | Density (ppl/km2) (2023) | Lit. rate (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abbottabad | Abbottabad | 1,967 | 1,419,072 | 721.6 | 77.34% |
| 2 | Allai | Allai Valley | 521 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 3 | Battagram | Battagram | 1,301 | 554,133 | 425.9 | 39.09% |
| 4 | Haripur | Haripur | 1,725 | 1,174,783 | 681.3 | 74.88% |
| 5 | Kolai Palas | Kolai | 1,410 | 280,162 | 198.7 | 18.80% |
| 6 | Lower Kohistan | Pattan | 642 | 340,017 | 529.5 | 22.05% |
| 7 | Mansehra | Mansehra | 4,125 | 1,797,177 | 435.6 | 63.79% |
| 8 | Torghar | Judba | 454 | 200,445 | 441.6 | 29.74% |
| 9 | Upper Kohistan | Dasu | 5,440 | 422,947 | 77.8 | 19.05% |
List of the Tehsils
The following are a list of tehsils in Hazara Division along with their respective districts.
| # | Tehsil | Area (km2)[16] | Pop. (2023) | Density (ppl/km2) (2023) | Lit. rate (2023) | Districts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abbottabad Tehsil | 1,285 | 1,003,339 | 101.76 | Abbottabad | |
| 2 | Havelian Tehsil | 342 | 256,754 | 98.8 | ||
| 3 | Lora Tehsil | 187 | 98,717 | 97.22 | ||
| 4 | Lower Tanawal Tehsil | 153 | 60,262 | 98.88 | ||
| 5 | Allai Tehsil | 804 | 218,149 | 271.33 | Batagram | |
| 6 | Batagram Tehsil | 497 | 335,984 | 676.02 | ||
| 7 | Ghazi Tehsil | 595 | 151,839 | 255.19 | Haripur | |
| 8 | Haripur Tehsil | 834 | 836,058 | 1,002.47 | ||
| 9 | Khanpur Tehsil | 296 | 186,886 | 631.37 | ||
| 10 | Bataira / Kolai | 170 | 142,660 | 839.18 | Kolai-Palas | |
| 11 | Palas | 1,240 | 137,502 | 110.89 | ||
| 12 | Bankad Tehsil | 331 | 205,851 | 621.91 | Lower Kohistan | |
| 13 | Pattan Tehsil | 311 | 134,166 | 431.4 | ||
| 14 | Baffa Pakhal | 640 | 460,090 | 718.89 | Mansehra | |
| 15 | Bala Kot Tehsil | 2,376 | 310,339 | 130.61 | ||
| 16 | Darband Tehsil | 102 | 51,702 | 506.88 | ||
| 17 | Mansehra Tehsil | 700 | 723,325 | 1,033.32 | ||
| 18 | Oghi Tehsil | 307 | 251,721 | 819.94 | ||
| 19 | Tanawal Tehsil | |||||
| 20 | Daur Maira Tehsil | 86 | 50,503 | 587.24 | Torghar | |
| 21 | Judba Tehsil | 63 | 63,083 | 1,001.32 | ||
| 22 | Khander Hassanzai Tehsil | 305 | 86,859 | 284.78 | ||
| 23 | Dassu Tehsil | 1,958 | 148,914 | 76.05 | Upper Kohistan | |
| 24 | Harban Basha Tehsil | |||||
| 25 | Kandia Tehsil | 1,926 | 165,232 | 85.79 | ||
| 26 | Seo Tehsil | 258 | 59,557 | 230.84 |
Constituencies
See also
References
- ↑"1951 - 1998 POPULATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS (AS ON 1st MARCH 1998)"(PDF). 1951-98 Population of Administrative Units (As on 1 March 1998).pdf. POPULATION CENSUS ORGANIZATION STATISTICS DIVISION GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN. January 2002. Archived(PDF) from the original on 23 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
- ↑"TABLE 11 : POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/URBAN, CENSUS-2023"(PDF).
- ↑"Literacy rate, enrolments, and out-of-school population by sex and rural/urban, CENSUS-2023"(PDF).
- ↑"KP govt upgrades status of tehsil Allai to new district". The Nation. The Nation (Pakistan). 22 January 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
- ↑"About Hazara Division". Commissioner Hazara Division. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
Note: Website message predates the creation of Allai District.
- ↑"About Hazara Division". Commissioner Hazara Division. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
- ↑"The Role of Hazaras in the Creation of Pakistan: The Post-Independence Search for Identity". Pakistan Journal of Social Research. June 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
- ↑"Imperial Gazetteer". Digital South Asia Library. University of Chicago. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
{{cite web}}: Check|archive-url=value (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑Divisions/Districts of PakistanArchived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine Note: Although divisions as an administrative structure had been abolished, the election commission of Pakistan still continued to group districts under the division names
- ↑"PBS Pakistan Bureau of Statistics"(PDF). www.pbs.gov.pk. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
- ↑US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
Latvia 2,204,708, July 2011 est.
- ↑"2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
New Mexico - 2,059,179
- ↑"Population by administrative units 1951-1998"(PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
- ↑Divisions/Districts of PakistanArchived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine Note: Although divisions as an administrative structure has been abolished, the election commission of Pakistan still groups districts under the division names
- ↑"TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB"(PDF).
- ↑"TABLE 1 : AREA, POPULATION BY SEX, SEX RATIO, POPULATION DENSITY, URBAN POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, CENSUS-2023, PUNJAB"(PDF).
- Divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa