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Subdivisions of Pakistan

 

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Subdivisions of Pakistan



 
 
Pakistan is subdivided into four provinces, two federally administered areas and a federal capital territory. The provinces are subdivided into more than a hundred Zillahs, or districts and further subdivided into Tehsil
Tehsil

A tehsil is an administrative division of some country of South Asia.Generally, a tehsil consists of a city or town that serves as its headquarters, possibly additional towns, and a number of villages....
s
(in Sindh
Sindh

Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....
, Talukas). At the most local level, there are also over five thousand local governments.
he 1960s, Pakistan was simply divided into two "units" of East Pakistan
East Pakistan

East Pakistan was a former Provinces of Pakistan of Pakistan which existed between 1955 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British Raj in 1947....
 and West Pakistan
West Pakistan

West Pakistan was the popular and sometimes official name of the western wing of Pakistan until 1971, when the East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh....
.






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Pakistan is subdivided into four provinces, two federally administered areas and a federal capital territory. The provinces are subdivided into more than a hundred Zillahs, or districts and further subdivided into Tehsil
Tehsil

A tehsil is an administrative division of some country of South Asia.Generally, a tehsil consists of a city or town that serves as its headquarters, possibly additional towns, and a number of villages....
s
(in Sindh
Sindh

Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....
, Talukas). At the most local level, there are also over five thousand local governments.

History

In the 1960s, Pakistan was simply divided into two "units" of East Pakistan
East Pakistan

East Pakistan was a former Provinces of Pakistan of Pakistan which existed between 1955 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British Raj in 1947....
 and West Pakistan
West Pakistan

West Pakistan was the popular and sometimes official name of the western wing of Pakistan until 1971, when the East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh....
. Shortly before East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh
Bangladesh

, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south....
, West Pakistan reverted to a system with four provinces. The provinces consisted of subunits called "divisions", which were further subdivided into districts, tehsils, and villages or municipalities.

In August 2000, Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf

General Pervez Musharraf , Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Tamgha-e-Basalat, is a former President of Pakistan. Previously, he was Prime Minister of Pakistan as well as Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army of the Pakistan Army....
's local government reforms abolished the "division" as an administrative tier. A system of local government councils was established, with the first elections being held in 2001. Since the 2001 Local Government Ordinances, Pakistan has embarked on a radical restructuring of the local government system. The government is implementing a devolution
Devolution

Devolution is the Statute granting of powers from the central government of a state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level....
 plan which, in its words, "follows the principle of subsidiarity
Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralised competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immedi...
, whereby all functions that can be effectively performed at the local level are transferred to that level. This has meant the decentralization to the districts and tehsils of many functions previously handled by the provincial governments."

Provinces and territories

Provinces:
  • Balochistan
    Balochistan (Pakistan)

    Balochistan, or Baluchistan, is a Subdivisions of Pakistan in Pakistan, the largest in the country by geographical area; it is slightly smaller than Norway....
  • North-West Frontier Province
    North-West Frontier Province

    File:Makra Peak by Khalid Mahmood.jpgThe North-West Frontier Province is the smallest of the Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan. The NWFP is home to the majority Pashtuns as well as other smaller ethnic groups....
  • Punjab
    Punjab (Pakistan)

    The Punjab...
  • Sindh
    Sindh

    Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....


Federal Territories:
  • Islamabad Capital Territory
    Islamabad Capital Territory

    The Islamabad Capital Territory is one of the two federal Subdivisions of Pakistan#Provinces and territories. It includes Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, and covers an area of 1,165.5 km?, of this Islamabad city covers an area of 1 E11 m? km?, or 350 square miles....
  • Federally Administered Tribal Areas
    Federally Administered Tribal Areas

    The Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan are areas outside the four Subdivisions of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, comprising a region of some 27,220 square kilometre ....
  • Federally Administered Northern Areas
    Northern Areas

    The Northern Areas is officially referred to by the government of Pakistan as the Federally Administered Northern Areas . The Northern Areas is the northernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir....


Autonomous State:
  • Azad Kashmir
    Azad Kashmir

    Azad Jammu and Kashmir or, for short, Azad Kashmir is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part of the former Jammu and Kashmir of Jammu and Kashmir....


Local Governments

The provinces are divided into a total of 105 Zillahs (district
District

Districts are a type of administrative division, in some countries managed by a local government. They vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipality, or subdivisions of municipalities....
s). A zillah is further subdivided into tehsil
Tehsil

A tehsil is an administrative division of some country of South Asia.Generally, a tehsil consists of a city or town that serves as its headquarters, possibly additional towns, and a number of villages....
s (roughly equivalent to counties
County

A county is a land area of Local government government within a larger state. A county may have city and towns within its area....
). Tehsils are used in all provinces except in Sindh
Sindh

Sindh is one of the four Subdivisions of Pakistan of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from India upon independence as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence....
 province where the term Taluka predominates. Tehsils may contain villages or municipalities. There are over five thousand local governments in Pakistan. Since 2001, these have been led by democratically elected local councils, each headed by a Nazim
Nazim

A nazim is the coordinator of cities and towns in Pakistan. Nazim is the title in Urdu of the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a Districts of Pakistan, Tehsil, Union Council, or Village Council....
 (the word means "supervisor" in Urdu, but is sometimes translated as Mayor). Women have been allotted a minimum of 33% seats in these councils; there is no upper limit to the number of women in these councils.

Some districts, incorporating large metropolitan
Metropolis

A metropolis , also referred to as a metropolitan, is a big city, in most cases with over half a million inhabitants in the city proper, and with a population of at least one million living in its Agglomeration....
 areas, are called City District
City district

City district is a type of administrative division of Pakistan and Croatia.It is also the English translation of German Stadtbezirk and Swedish Stadsdel....
. A City District may contain subdivisions called Towns and Union Councils.

See also

  • Districts of Pakistan
    Districts of Pakistan

    The Districts of Pakistan are the second order administrative divisions of Pakistan. Districts were the third order of administrative divisions, below Subdivisions of Pakistan and "Divisions of Pakistan", until the reforms of August 2000, when "divisions" were abolished....

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