Abbottabad District

Abbottabad District (Hindko, Template:Langx) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is part of the Hazara Division and covers an area of Template:Convert, with the city of Abbottabad being the principal town.<ref>Geography of District Abbottabad Template:Webarchive</ref> Neighbouring districts include Mansehra to the north and Haripur to the west in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzaffarabad to the east in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Rawalpindi to the south in the Punjab province.<ref name="IUCN"/> According to the 2023 Pakistani census, the population of Abbottabad District is 1,397,587.<ref name="2023 census"/>

History

Origin of name

The district is named after Major James Abbott, the first deputy commissioner of Hazara (1849–1853).<ref name="IUCN">IUCN Pakistan (2004). Abbottabad – State of the environment and Development. IUCN Pakistan and Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa: Karachi, p. 2.</ref>

Hazara

During British rule, Abbottabad became the capital of the Hazara division, which was named after and contained the Hazara valley, a small valley in the outermost Himalayas, between the Indus in the west and Kashmir in the east.<ref>Hazara – Nordisk familjebok</ref>

The current Abbottabad District was originally a tehsil of Hazara, the Imperial Gazetteer of India described it as follows:

The area covered by the modern district is described as lying between 33°50' and 34°23' North, 73°35' and 73°31'East.<ref>NOVATEUR PUBLICATIONS JournalNX- A Multidisciplinary Peer Reviewed Journal ISSN No: 2581 - 4230 VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4, Apr. -2021</ref>

In 1976, the tehsils of Mansehra and Battagram were separated into the new Mansehra District, while the tehsil of Haripur became a separate district in 1991.<ref name="1998census">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Administration

File:Abbottabad Union Councils.svg

Map showing the administrative subdivisions of Abbottabad District, the Union Councils of Havelian Tehsil are highlighted in green, whilst those of Abbottabad Tehsil are highlighted in red (the names neighbouring districts to Abbottabad are also shown).

Abbottabad district is divided into four tehsils:<ref>Open Data tehsils-in-district-abbottabad-year-2021</ref> Template:Static row numbers

Tehsil	Area (km²)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Pop. (2023)	Density (ppl/km²) (2023)	Literacy rate (2023)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Union Councils
Abbottabad Tehsil	1,285	1,003,339	101.76	78.39%	51
Havelian Tehsil	342	256,754	98.8	76.08%	13
Lora Tehsil	187	98,717	97.22	73.73%
Lower Tanawal Tehsil	153	60,262	98.88	71.66%

Abbottabad district has one urban administration area – Nawanshehr.

Election 1977

During the 1977 elections Iqbal Khan Jadoon, known as the Fakhr-e-Hazara or pride of Hazara, was elected to the district's NA-12 (Abbottabad) constituency.<ref>National Assembly Elections in Pakistan 1970-2008 - A compendium of elections related facts and statistics Page 130</ref>

Election 2008

With the announcement by the Election commission of Pakistan that elections would be held on 8 January 2008,<ref>2008 Elections – ELECTION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN Template:Webarchive</ref> more than a dozen candidates filed their nomination papers in Abbottabad.<ref>Election campaign starts in Abbottabad – Associated press of Pakistan</ref>

Political campaigns

Abbottabad was the centre of the Sooba Hazara movement that started after the national assembly passed the 18th amendment to change the name of the province from North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The former governor of the province has been vocal in this opposition to the new name<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Provincial assembly

The district is represented in the provincial assembly by four elected MPAs (PK-36 to PK-39):<ref>PF-48 (Abbottabad-V) Result: Announced Template:Webarchive</ref>

Member of Provincial Assembly	Party affiliation	Constituency	Year
Nazir Ahmed Abbasi	Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf	PK-36 Abbottabad-I	2018
Sardar Aurangzeb	Pakistan Muslim League (N)	PK-37 Abbottabad-II	2018
Qalandar Khan Lodhi	Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf	PK-38 Abbottabad-III	2018
Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani	Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf	PK-39 Abbottabad-IV	2018

Demographics

As of the 2023 census, Abbottabad district has 236,789 households and a population of 1,419,072. The district has a sex ratio of 100.77 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 77.34%: 86.20% for males and 68.42% for females. 334,274 (23.92% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 332,315 (23.42%) live in urban areas.<ref name="2023 census">Template:Cite web</ref>

The population of the district increased from 880,666 in 1998 to 1,419,072 in 2023 which is an increase of 61% over the 25 year period.

Major ethnic groups

The major ethnic groups in the district are:

• Gujjar<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Awan<ref name=":0" />
• Dhund<ref name=":0" />
• Karlal<ref name=":0" />
• Sarara<ref name=":0" />
• Kashmiris<ref name=":0" />

The Tanawal–Sherwan region is mainly inhabited by the Tanoli tribe, while the Galliyat hill areas are mostly home to the Karlal and Abbassi tribes and the lowland plains are largely settled by the Awan community.<ref>Society and Culture - Abbottabad Government website</ref>

Language

At the time of the 2023 census, 87.43% (1,221,957) of the population spoke Hindko, 5.85% (81,731) Pashto, 3.06% (42,734) Urdu, 11,744 Kohistani, 10,401 Punjabi, 1,971 Shina, 1,722 Saraiki, 1,080 Kashmiri as their first language. Other languages, namely the Kohistani (11,744), are also spoken in this district.<ref name="2023censuslanguage">Template:Cite web</ref>

Literacy

According to the 2023 census Abbottabad was the only district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that had a literacy of 75.1% and above.<ref>- Page 125</ref>

Religion

Religion in contemporary Abbottabad District

Religious group	1941<ref name="Census1941">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp		2017<ref name="2017census">Template:Cite web</ref>		2023<ref name="2023censusreligion">Template:Cite web</ref>
	[[Population|Template:Abbr]]	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr
Islam File:Star and Crescent.svg	284,228	92.13%	1,329,917	99.76%	1,391,394	99.56%
Hinduism File:Om.svg	17,558	5.69%	80	0.01%	114	0.01%
Sikhism File:Khanda.svg	6,035	1.96%	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	43	~0%
Christianity File:Christian cross.svg	278	0.09%	2,605	0.20%	5,818	0.42%
Other	419	0.13%	487	0.03%	218	0.01%
Total Population	308,518	100%	1,333,089	100%	1,397,587Template:Efn	100%
Template:Small

The major language of the area is Hindko, which in the 1981 census, was the mother tongue of Template:Sigfig% of households.<ref name="1981census">Template:Cite book The data is specifically for Abbottabad Tehsil; the only other tehsil of the district has since been promoted into the separate district of Haripur.</ref> The variety spoken in the city of Abbottabad has formed the basis of a literary language.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is very close to the Hindko varieties of Mansehra: the two share 86% of their basic vocabulary.<ref> The figure is from:

• Template:Cite report

The relative homogeneity of the Hindko dialects of Abbottabad and Manshehra is mentioned in:

• Template:Cite book</ref> In the Galliat region in the southeast of the district, the language is still known as Hindko but becomes more distinct and gradually transitions into the dialects of Pahari.Template:Sfn

Other languages, such as Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi, are found more in urban than rural areas.

Parks and protected areas

Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act of 1975, two areas have been designated with the district: Ayubia National Park and Qalandarabad game reserve.<ref name="IUCN2">IUCN Pakistan (2004). Abbottabad – State of the environment and Development. IUCN Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Karachi, p. 50.</ref> Both areas cover only 6% of the landed area of the district.<ref name="IUCN2" />

The Ayubia National Park was established in 1984, this park covers an area of over 3,312 ha.<ref name="IUCN2" />

The Qalandarabad game reserve was established in 1980 with an area of 8,940ha.<ref name="IUCN2" />

Education

According to the Alif Ailaan Pakistan District Education Rankings 2015, Abbottabad is ranked 31 out of 148 districts in terms of education. For facilities and infrastructure, the district is ranked 72 out of 148.The literacy rate of Abbottabad is 69%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• 2005 Kashmir earthquake