Lower Dir District

Lower Dir District
Lower Dir District ; ; ضلع دیرِ زیریں
	District
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Headquarters	Timergara
Area
• District	1,582 km2 (611 sq mi)
Population (2017)
• District	1,435,917
• Density	910/km2 (2,400/sq mi)
• Urban	40,373
• Rural	1,395,544
Time zone	PST
Main language	Pashto (99.4)
Website	http://dirlower.com/

Lower Dir District (Pashto: لر / کوز دير ولسوالۍ‎, Urdu: ضِلع دیرِ زیریں‎) is a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Timergara city is the district headquarter and largest city, while the other small cities are Chakdara, Munda, Samar Bagh, Khall and Kumbar.

At the time of independence, Dir was a princely state ruled by Nawab Shah Jehan Khan. It was merged with Pakistan in 1969 and later declared a district in 1970. The district was formed in 1996, when the district of Dir was divided into Upper Dir and Lower Dir. The district borders Swat District on its East, Afghanistan on its West, Upper Dir and Chitral on its North and North-West respectively and Malakand and Bajaur Agency on its South.

Administration

The district is administratively subdivided into seven tehsils, Adenzai, Timergara, Balambat, Khall, Munda, Samar Bagh and Lal Qila Maidan, which contain a total of 41 Union Councils.^[3] In Lower Dir, there are 7 tehsils:

Tehsil	Union councils
Adenzai	Asbanr, Badwan, Chakdara, Khadagzai, Tazagram, Khanpur, Kotigram, Ouch
Balambat	Balambat, Hayaserai, Lajbook, Munjai, Koto, Rabat , Odigram
Khall	Khall-I, Khall-II, Toormang-I, Toormang-II, Sultankhel (Payeen Dara)
Lal Qilla	Bishgram, Lal Qilla, Gall Maidan, Kotkai (Maidan), Zaimdara,
Munda	Khazana, Mia Kalai, Munda,
Samarbagh	Darangai, Kambat, Mayar, Maskini, Sadbar Kali, Samar Bagh
Timergara	Bagh Dush Khel,Saddo, Bandagai, Khungai, Malak Abad Ghara, Noora Khel, Shahi Khel Ziarat Talash, Timergara (Urban)

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	2002
Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor Ghawas	Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal	2003
Malak Azmat Khan	Pakistan Peoples Party	2008
Shahib Zada Muhammad Yaqub	Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan	2013

Since 2018: NA-6 (Lower Dir-I)

Election		Member	Party
	2018	Mehboob Shah	PTI

Since 2018: NA-7 (Lower Dir-II)

Election		Member	Party
	2018	Muhammad Bashir Khan	PTI

Provincial Assembly

The district is represented by four elected MPAs in the provincial assembly who represent the following constituencies. After the shifting of three union councils from the Upper Dir to Lower Dir, the provincial constituency of upper Dir, PF-93, now consists of UCs Khall, Toor Mang and Akha Gram of Lower Dir. ^[4]

PK-13 (Lower Dir-I)
PK-14 (Lower Dir-II)
PK-15 (Lower Dir-III)
PK-16 (Lower Dir-IV)
PK-17 (Lower Dir-V)

Notable people

Siraj ul Haq, politician
Muhammad Bashir Khan, politician
Noorena Shams, professional squash player
Naseem Shah, cricketer
Zahid Khan, Ex-Senator

References

^ "DISTRICT AND TEHSIL LEVEL POPULATION SUMMARY WITH REGION BREAKUP: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2018-01-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-04-24. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
^ 1998 District Census report of Lower Dir. Census publication. 31. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. 1999.
^ "Tehsils & Unions in the District of Lower Dir – Government of Pakistan". nrb.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
^ Constituencies and MPAs – Website of the Provincial Assembly of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Archived 2008-04-28 at the Wayback Machine

External links

[census2017-1] "DISTRICT AND TEHSIL LEVEL POPULATION SUMMARY WITH REGION BREAKUP: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2018-01-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-04-24. Retrieved 2018-04-23.

[1998census-2] 1998 District Census report of Lower Dir. Census publication. 31. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. 1999.

[3] "Tehsils & Unions in the District of Lower Dir – Government of Pakistan". nrb.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2007-12-22.

[4] Constituencies and MPAs – Website of the Provincial Assembly of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Archived 2008-04-28 at the Wayback Machine

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