Lower Dir District

Lower Dir District (, ) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Timergara is the district's headquarters and largest city. The Lower Dir district was formed in 1996, when Dir District was divided into Upper Dir and Lower Dir districts. On 22 January 2023, both Lower Dir and Upper Dir districts were further bifurcated to create a new Central Dir District.

Lower Dir district borders with Swat District to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Upper Dir to the north and Malakand and Bajaur District to the south.

History At the time of independence of Pakistan, Dir was a princely state ruled by Nawab Shah Jehan Khan. Dir was merged with Pakistan in 1969, declared a district in 1970, and split into Upper and Lower Dir in 1996.

Education The University of Malakand is a public university located in Chakdara. The University of Dir is a newly established university located in Timergara.

Demographics

As of the 2023 census, Lower Dir district has 202,836 households and a population of 1,650,183. The district has a sex ratio of 97.24 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 57.36%: 72.57% for males and 43.16% for females. 542,074 (32.88% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 47,860 (2.90%) live in urban areas. 4,439 (0.27%) people in the district were from religious minorities, mainly Christians. Pashto was the predominant language, spoken by 99.54% of the population.

Administration

National Assembly NA-6 (Lower Dir-I) and NA-7 (Lower Dir-II) are constituencies of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Lower Dir district. These areas were formerly part of NA-34 (Lower Dir) constituency from 1977 to 2018. The delimitation in 2018 split Lower Dir into two separate constituencies, NA-6 (Lower Dir-I) and NA-7 (Lower Dir-II).

NA-34 constituency (2002-2018) Member of National Assembly Party affiliation Year Qazi Hussain Ahmad Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 2002Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor GhawasMuttahida Majlis-e-Amal2003 Malak Azmat Khan Pakistan Peoples Party 2008 Shahib Zada Muhammad Yaqub Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan 2013

Since 2018: NA-6 (Lower Dir-I) and NA-7 (Lower Dir-II) Member of National Assembly Party affiliation Constituency YearMehboob ShahPTINA-6 (Lower Dir-I)2018 Muhammad Bashir Khan PTI NA-7 (Lower Dir-II)2018

Provincial Assembly Member of Provincial Assembly Party affiliation Constituency Year Muhammad Azam Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PK-13 (Lower Dir-I)2018 Humayun Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafPK-14 (Lower Dir-II) 2018 Shafi ullah Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafPK-15 (Lower Dir-III) 2018 Bahdur KhanAwami National Party PK-16 (Lower Dir-IV)2018 Liaqat Ali Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafPK-17 (Lower Dir-V)2018

Tehsils TehsilArea (km²)Pop. (2023)Density (ppl/km²)

(2023)Literacy rate (2023)Union CouncilsAdenzai Tehsil372378,9151,018.5962.19%Balambat Tehsil............Khal Tehsil............Lal Qilla Tehsil216247,3811,145.2853.29%Munda Tehsil............Samar Bagh Tehsil419427,7141,020.8045.75%Timergara Tehsil576596,1731,035.0264.06%

Notable people Nawabzada Shahabuddin Khan, Former Ruler of Lower Dir Siraj ul Haq, politician Muhammad Bashir Khan, politician Jehan Alam Khan, President / Head of World Yousafzai Jirga (WYJ) Naseem Shah, cricketer Zahid Khan, Ex-Senator Abaseen Yousafzai, Pashto poet Noorena Shams, squash player

Gallery

Lower Dir District

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