The
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) (Urdu: śhumāl maġribī sarhadī sūbha )
(other informal names include Sarhad
, Frontier
Afghania
, Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtunistan and Pakhtunistan) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan
. The
NWFP the majority of the population are
Pashtuns, locally referred to as
Pakhtuns,
and other smaller ethnic groups.
The
province which was founded on April 26, 1902 at Shahi Bagh Garden Function in Peshawar
at the
instigation of Lord Curzon, the first
Chief Executive of the province. NWFP was formed from
the areas annexed from Emirate of Afghanistan
who termed it a temporary measure, after the
Durand Line Agreement was made
on 12 November 1893 at Parachinar
. It is now separated and is part of the
Federally Administered Tribal
Areas
(FATA) as a result of a Royal Commission set up by
the Afghan Emirate and the British East India
Company-administered India
.
NWFP
borders Afghanistan to the northwest, the Gilgit-Baltistan
to the northeast, Azad Jammu and Kashmir
to the east, FATA to the west and south, and
Pakistani
Punjab
and Islamabad Capital Territory
to the southeast.
The principal language is
Pashto
(locally referred to as
Pakhto) and the provincial capital
is Peshawar (locally referred to as
Pekhawar). The
Government of Pakistan led by the
Pakistan Peoples Party and
Awami National Party, to accommodate a
demand by the
Awami National
Party, proposed the province’s name be changed to
Pakhtunkhwa.
Geography
The NWFP is largely located along the peripheral junction between
the
South Asia and the
Eurasian plate, and this has led to seismic
activity in the past (see
Kashmir Quake).
Area wise, it is equal
to the size of New
England
.
The famous
Khyber
Pass
links the province to Afghanistan, while the
Kohalla
Bridge
in Circle
Bakote
is a major crossing point over the Jhelum River
in the east.
The
province has an area of 28,773 mi² or
(74,521 km²) and its districts
include Hazara Division, home to the
town of Havelian
, the western starting point of the Karakoram
Highway
.
The NWFP is divided into three administrative regions areas:
Settled Areas of NWFP, the Tribal Areas of PATA, and the Tribal
Areas of
Frontier Regions. There
are five Frontier Regions in NWFP.
The
province's main districts are Dera Ismail Khan
, Kohat, Bannu, Abbottabad
and Mansehra. Peshawar and Mardan
are the main
cities.
The region varies in topography from dry rocky areas in the south
to forests and green plains in the north. The climate can be
extreme with intensely hot summers to freezing cold winters.
Despite these extremes in weather, agriculture remains important
and viable in the area.
The hilly
terrain of Swat
, Kalam, Upper Dir, Naran
and Kaghan is renowned
for its beauty and attracts a great many tourists from neighbouring
regions and from around the world. Swat-Kalam is also
termed 'a piece of Switzerland
' as there are many landscape similarities between
it and the mountainous terrain of Switzerland.
According to the 1998 census, the population of NWFP was
approximately 17 million, of whom 52% are males and 48% are
females. The density of population is 187 per km² and the
intercensal change of population is of about 30%.
Geographically the
province could be divided into two zones: the northern one
extending from the ranges of the Hindu Kush
to the borders of Peshawar basin, and the southern
one extending from Peshawar to the Derajat basin.
The northern zone is cold and snowy in winters with heavy rainfall
and pleasant summers with the exception of Peshawar basin, which is
hot in summer and cold in winter. It has moderate rainfall. The
southern zone is arid with hot summers and relatively cold winters
and scantly rainfall.
Its climate varies from very cold (Chitral in the north) to very
hot in places like D.I. Khan. The major rivers that criss-cross the
province are Kabul River, Swat River, Chitral River, Panjgora
River, Bara River, Karam River, Gomal River and Zob River.
Its snow-capped peaks and lush green valleys of unusual beauty have
enormous potential for tourism .
Flora and fauna
Climate
The
climate of NWFP varies immensely for a
region of its size, most of the many climate types found in
Pakistan.
The province stretching southwards from the
Baroghil Pass in the Hindu Kush covers almost six degrees of latitude, it is mainly
a mountainous region. Dera Ismail Khan is one of the hottest
places in the South Asia while in the mountains to the north the
weather is temperate in the summer and intensely cold in the
winter. The air generally very dry and consequently the daily and
annual range of temperature range is quite large.
Chitral District
The
north, comprising Chitral District
, has a typically continental steppe climate, with
average annual precipitation ranging from
100 mm (4 inches) per year in the far north to
585 mm (23 inches) in Drosh in the south. Most of
this precipitation from frontal cloudbands during the winter and
heavy
thunderstorms in the spring. Of
Chitral's average 420 mm (16.5 inches) of rainfall per
year, 350 mm (13.8 inches) falls from December to
May.
At high elevations in the Hindukush,
snowfall
can be much heavier than this and consequently large
glaciers are a prominent feature of the landscape.
Snow also
cuts off even Chitral
town from the outside world for most of the
year. Temperatures in the valleys vary from 40 °C (105 °F)
in July to as low as -10 °C (15 °F) in January. In the previous few
years flooding has created problems in Mastuj
tehsil.
Dir, Swat and Hazara
Further
south, in the districts of Dir, Swat and Hazara, the climate becomes more typical of
the South Asia, although a considerable proportion of the annual
precipitation still comes from frontal cloudbands during the winter
months.
The combination of a short but powerful (owing to orography) summer
monsoon with frequent winter cloudbands gives a bimodal rainfall
regime in central parts of NWFP. Dir and Hazara districts are some
of the wettest places in Pakistan: annual rainfall at Dir averages
1475 mm (58 inches), of which 400 mm
(15.75 inches) falls during the summer monsoon from July to
September and twice that amount during the winter rainy season from
December to April.
At
Abbottabad
further east, the annual rainfall averages about
1195 mm (47 inches), but as much as 635 mm
(25 inches) falls during the south-west monsoon. In
Swat, rather more sheltered, the annual rainfall averages around
840 mm (33 inches), with about 430 mm
(17 inches) expected between June and September.
A similar climate to
that of Dir, though drier, prevails in a small area around Parachinar in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
In all areas October and November are the driest months with
rainfalls generally under 30 mm (1.2 inches) per month
except in the most exposed areas.
Temperatures in this region are somewhat
warmer than in Chitral, and even at in Abbottabad the heat and humidity
can be oppressive during the monsoon season. In winter, most
of Swat receives significant snowfall, but in Hazara temperatures
usually are around 5 °C (41 °F).
Southern NWFP
This region, south of the Himalaya/Hindukush foothills, has the
typically hot and dry climate of much of Pakistan. Temperatures in
summer are quite oppressively hot, and in the south around Mardan
temperatures of 45 °C (113 °F) are not un common, whilst in
Peshawar 40 °C (104 °F) is par for the course in summer.
In winter, however, this region is both warmer and generally drier
than the rest of NWFP, with temperatures being around 17 °C (62 °F)
in Peshawar and over 20 °C (68 °F) in the extreme south of the
province. Nights, however, can still be quite cold during the
winter.
Southern NWFP experiences little (and very erratic) monsoonal rain,
with Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan both averaging around 115&
nbsp;mm (4.5 inches) of rain in July and August and almost
nothing in June or September. Moreover, in many years no summer
rain of significance occurs.
In winter, rainfall usually peaks in March but Peshawar averages
less than 250 mm (10 inches) between December and May and
Dera Ismail Khan less than 115 mm (4.5 inches).
On
certain mountain slopes such as around Kohat
, winter
rainfall may predominate, though this is
unpredictable.
Demographics
| Historical
populations |
| Census |
Population |
Urban |
|
| 1951 |
4,556,545 |
11.07% |
| 1961 |
5,730,991 |
13.23% |
| 1972 |
8,388,551 |
14.25% |
| 1981 |
11,061,328 |
15.05% |
| 1998 |
17,743,645 |
16.87% |
The province has an estimated population of roughly 21 million that
does not include the almost 1.5 million
Afghan refugees and their descendants in the
province. The largest ethnic group are the
Pashtuns who form about two-thirds of the
population.
Pashto is the most pervasive
language while
Hindko is the second most
commonly spoken indigenous language. Pashto is predominant in
western and southern NWFP and is the main language in most cities
and towns including Peshawar.
Hindkowans are most common in eastern NWFP, the
Hazara Division, and especially in
the cities of Abbottabad, Mansehra
, and Haripur.
Saraiki and Balochi-speakers live in the southeast of
the province mainly in Dera Ismail Khan District. Bilingualism and trilingualism is common
with Pashto and Urdu being the primary other languages
spoken.
In most rural areas of the centre and south various Pashtun tribes
can be found including the
Yusufzai,
Tanoli,
Khattak,
Marwat,
Afridi,
Shinwari,
Orakzai,
Bangash,
Mahsud,
Mohmand,
Wazir,
and
Gandapur as well as numerous other
smaller tribes.
Further north, the prominent Pashtun tribes are,
Swati,
Tareen,
Jadoon and
Mashwani. There
are various non-Pashtun tribes including
Awan, Gujjar. The Awan are believed to be of
Arabic origin and are recognisably different from the rest of
Pashtun and non-Pushtun majority.
The
mountainous extreme north includes Chitral District which is home to diverse Dardic ethnic groups such as the
Khowar, Kohistani,
Shina, Torwali,
Kalasha and Kalami.
In addition,
Afghan refugees,
although predominantly Pashtun (including the
Ghilzai and
Durrani tribes),
include hundreds of thousands of
Persian-speaking
Tajiks and
Hazara as well as other smaller groups found
throughout the province.
Nearly all of the inhabitants of the NWFP are
Muslim with a
Sunni majority and
significant minority of
Shias and
Ismailis. Many of the
Kalasha of Southern Chitral still retain
their ancient
Animist/
Shamanist religion.
History
Ancient history
Since ancient times the region numerous groups have invaded the
NWFP including the
Persians,
Greeks,
Scythians,
Kushans,
Huns,
Arabs,
Turks,
Mongols,
Mughals,
Sikhs, and the
British.
Between 2000 and 1500 BC, the Aryans split off into an
Iranian branch, represented by the
Pashtuns who came to dominate most of the
region, an
Indo-Aryan branch
represented by the
Hindkowans who
populated much of the region before the time of the
Pashtuns and various
Dardic peoples who came to populate much of
the north. Earlier pre-Aryan inhabitants include the
Burusho.
The Vale
of Peshawar was home to the Kingdom of Gandhara from around the 6th century BC and later
ancient Peshawar became a capital of the Kushan Empire. The region was visited
by such notable historical figures as
Darius
II,
Alexander the Great,
Hiuen Tsang, Fa Hien,
Marco Polo,
Mountstuart Elphinstone, and
Winston Churchill, among
others.According to the
Mahabharatha
(an Indian epic dating to 3000 BC), the Gandhara kingdom had its
capital at today's Kandahar in Afghanistan. The place of Shakuni ;
Maternal Uncle of Kauravas and their mother Gandhari's Land.
Following the
Mauryan conquest of the
region,
Buddhism became a major faith, at
least in urban centres, as attested by recent archaeological and
hermeneutic evidence.
Kanishka, a prominent
Kushan ruler was one of the prominent
Buddhist kings.
Rural areas retained numerous
Shamanistic faiths as evident with the
Kalash and other groups. The roots of
Pashtunwali or the traditional code of honour
followed by the Pashtuns is also believed to have
Pre-Islamic origins.
Persian invasions left small pockets of
Zoroastrians and, later, a ruling
Hindu elite established itself briefly during the
later
Shahi period.
The Shahi era
During the early
1st millennium,
prior to the rise of
Islam, the
NWFP was ruled by the Shahi kings. The early Shahis were
Afghan Buddhist rulers and reigned over the
area until 870 CE when they were overthrown and then later
replaced.
When the
Chinese monk Xuanzang visited the region
early in the 7th century CE, the Kabul valley region was still
ruled by affiliates of the Shahi kings, who is identified as the
Shahi Khingal, and whose name has been found in an inscription
found in Gardez
.
While the early Shahis were
Irano-Afghan and Hindus
Kabulistani in origin, the later Shahi kings of
Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in
neighbouring Kashmir and the Punjab. The Hindu Shahis are believed
to have been a ruling elite of a predominantly Buddhist,
Zoroastrian and shamanistic population and were
thus patrons of numerous faiths, and various artefacts and coins
from their rule have been found that display their multicultural
domain.
The last Shahi rulers were eventually wiped out by tribes led by
Mahmud of Ghazni who arrived from
Afghanistan early in the 11th century.
Arrival of Islam
Buddhism and
Shamanism remained prominent in the region until
Muslim Arabs and
Turks conquered the area before the 2nd
millennium CE. Over the centuries local Pashtun and Dardic tribes
converted to Islam, while retaining some local traditions (albeit
altered by Islam) such as
Pashtunwali or
the Pashtun code of honour.
Ghaznavid Empire
During 963–1187 AD, NWFP became part of larger Islamic empires
including the
Ghaznavid Empire,
headed by Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazni,
and the empire of
Muhammad of Ghor.
It
Included Afghanistan extending up to Punjab and India Subcontinent
and with its capital at Lahore
.
Later it was controlled by the Afghan Pashtun Muslims of the
Delhi Sultanate. The "Delhi
Sultanate" refers to the many
Muslim states
that ruled the
India from 1206 to
1526.
Several
Turkic and
Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi Capital
instead of Lahore : the
Mamluk
dynasty (1206-90), the
Khilji
dynasty (1290-1320), the
Tughlaq
dynasty (1320-1413), the
Sayyid
dynasty (1414-51), and the
Lodhi
dynasty (1451-1526).
Mughal Empire
In 1526 the Delhi Sultanate was absorbed by the emerging
Mughal Empire and the
Ilkhanate Empire of the
Mongols, coming from Great
Genghis Khan and his grandsons like
Babur the
Mughal
Dynasty.
Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists,
architects, teachers, theologians and
sufis
flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to the region and Islam
flourished because of these Northern Afghan and Central Asian
invaders.
Mughal Afghan Sikh and British maintain nominal control
The area formed part of the
Durrani
Empire founded by
Ahmad Shah
Durrani in 1747.
Ahmed Shah Durrani was born in Multan
which was at
that time part of Afghanistan. The empire included Bahwalpur
, Kashmir
, Gilgit
, Hazara with its main city Haripur. Under tAhmed Shah Durrani and later his son
Timur Shah, who ruled from Lahore and
Multan, but later shifted it back to Kandahar
.
The NWFP
was an important borderland that was often contested by the
Mughals and Safavids
of Persia
.
During the reign of the Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb, the NWFP required formidable military
forces to control and the emergence of
Pashtun nationalism, who opposed Mughals who had
conquered most of North India. A leading force in inspiring Pashtun
miltancy was the local warrier poet
Khushal Khan Khattak who united some of
the tribes against the various empires around the region.
As the
Mughal had lost control by
1757, the NWFP came under the control of the Amir of Afghanistan
Ahmed Shah Abdali.
The
Sikh Empire, 1801-1849, under
Ranjit Singh ruled parts of the NWFP
province until the British took over during the Anglo Sikh war of
1849. However total control was never established.
The British Raj and birth of NWFP from annexed Afghanistan
areas after the Durand Line Agreement
The British, who had captured most of rest of the
Indian subcontinent without significant
problems, faced a number of difficulties here. The first war with
the
Pashtuns resulted in a
devastating defeat, with just one Dr.
William Brydon coming back alive (out of a
total of 14,800-21,000 people). This happened during the
First Anglo-Afghan War of 1849 and
later the
Second Anglo-Afghan
War of 1876. The
Third
Anglo-Afghan War of 1919, was also a continuation of the fight
for Reclaiming Areas of NWFP and claiming independence from British
occupation efforts which the
Afghans or the Pashtuns resisted
with greatest zeal and effort to remain as independent
nation.
Unable to enforce their rule in the region, the British changed
their tactics and played a game of
divide and rule. The use of religion and
installing puppet Pashtun rulers and dividing the Pashtuns through
artificially created regions and ruling indirectly to reduce the
chance of confrontation between Pashtuns and the British.
Although
the smallest size province Pushtoons were divided into Provincially Administered
Tribal Areas (PATA), Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Frontier
Regions (FR) and Settled Areas of NWFP and Baluchistan
. NWFP was restricted to five
districts.
Occasional Pashtun resistance and attacks
did take place on British in NWFP, including the Siege of
Malakand
and Swat, both
well documented by Winston
Churchill who was a war correspondent at the time.
A series
of conflicts known as the Anglo-Afghan
Wars during the imperialist Great
Game, wars between the British and Russian
governments, led to the eventual dismemberment of
Afghanistan into NWFP, Baluchistan and Khurasan. Divide
and rule policy and the annexation of NWFP and Baluchistan region
led to the demarcation of the Durand Line and administration as
part of British South Asia.
The Durand line is a poorly marked border between Afghanistan and
Pakistan. After fighting in two wars against Afghans, the British
succeeded in 1893 in imposing the Durand line, dividing Afghanistan
from the NWFP, Baluchistan, FR regions, FATA which were
incorporated into what was then
British
India. It was agreed upon by representatives of both
governments.
The international boundary line separating two countries was named
after Sir
Mortimer Durand, foreign
secretary of the British colonial government, who in 1893 had
negotiated with
Abdur Rahman Khan,
the
Amir of Afghanistan, on the frontier
between modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Areas
annexed from Afghanistan were the FATA, NWFP and Balochistan
provinces of Pakistan, the successor state of British India and the
successor Iranian
state of Khorasan.
In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand was sent to Kabul by the government of
British India for the purpose of settling an exchange of territory
required by the demarcation of the boundary between northeastern
Afghanistan, Iran and the Russian possessions.
The Amir showed ability in diplomatic argument, his tenacity where
his own views or claims were in debate, with a sure underlying
insight into the real situation. The territorial exchanges were
amicably agreed upon; the relations between the British Indian and
Afghan governments, as previously arranged, were confirmed; and an
understanding was reached upon the important and difficult subject
of the border line of Afghanistan on the east, towards India.
From the
British side the camp was attended by Sir Mortimer Durand and
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum the,
Political Agent
for the Khyber
Agency
. Afghanistan was represented by
Sahibzada Abdul Latif and the Governor
Sardar Shireendil Khan
representing the King Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.
While the Afghan side greatly resented the border and viewed it as
a temporary development, the British viewed it as being a permanent
settlement. The NWFP Province was formed on November 9, 1901, as a
Chief Commissioner ruled
province, the Chief Commissioner was the chief executive of the
province.
He ran the administration with the help of his principal advisers
and
Civil servants better known as
judicial and Revenue Commissioners.
The
formal inauguration of the province took place five and half months
later, at Shahi Bagh on April 26, 1902, on the occasion of the
historical Darbar in the Shahi Bagh (Kings Garden) in the capital town of
Peshawar.
It was held by
Lord Curzon
the Governor of the NWFP. The province then was comprised of only
five districts after dividing Annexed areas from Afghanistan into
FATA, Frontier Regions and the NWFP and Southern
Punjab.
NWFP
districts were Peshawar
District
, Hazara District,
Kohat
District
, Bannu District and the Dera Ismail
Khan District.
The first
Chief
Commissioner of the North-West Frontier Province was
Harold Deane. He was known as a strong
administrator and he was succeeded by
Ross-Keppel, in 1908, whose contribution
as a political officer was widely known amongst the tribal/frontier
people.
The NWFP was raised to a full-fledged governor-ruled province in
1931 in accordance with the demand by the
Round Table Conference held
in 1931. It was agreed upon in the conference that the NWFP would
be raised to a governor-ruled province with its own
Legislative Council.
Sir Ralph Griffith was appointed
the first Governor in 1932 (having succeeded
Stuart Pearks as Chief Commissioner in
1931).
Therefore, on January 25, 1932, the
Viceroy inaugurated the first NWFP
Legislative Council. The first provincial elections were held in
1937 and the independent candidate and noted British loyal civil
servant
Sahibzada Abdul
Qayyum was elected as the province's first
Chief Minister.
After independence
During the early 20th century the so-called Red Shirts led by
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
agitated through Non-violence for the rights of
Pakhtun areas.
Following
independence, the NWFP voted to join Pakistan in a referendum in 1947. However,
Afghanistan's
loya jirga of 1949
declared the Durand Line invalid, which led to border tensions with
Pakistan.
During the 1950s, Afghanistan supported a secessionist movement
called that failed to gain substantial support amongst the tribes
of the NWFP known as the
Pashtunistan
Movement.
After
President Ayub Khan eliminated Pakistan's
provinces, President Yahya Khan, in 1969,
abolished this "one unit" scheme and added Amb, Swat, Dir, Chitral
and Kohistan
to the new NWFP as PATA.
The Pashtunistan issue kept Pakistan and Afghanistan at odds for
decades until the
Soviet
Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Following the invasion over
five million Afghan refugees poured into Pakistan, most residing in
the NWFP (as of 2007 nearly 3 million remain).
Afghan jihad and war with Russia
During
the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the NWFP, the PATA and FATA
served as a major base for supplying the Mujahideen who fought the Soviet
during the
1980s.
The NWFP remained heavily influenced by events in Afghanistan and
the civil war led to the rise of the
Taliban, which had emerged in the border region
between Afghanistan, Baluchistan, PATA and FATA as a formidable
political force that nearly took-over all of Afghanistan. Following
the terrorist attacks of
September
11, 2001, the FATA and bordering NWFP became a frontline region
again as part of the global
War on
Terror.
Provincial government
District map of NWFP and Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
The
Provincial
Assembly of the North-West Frontier Province is unicameral and
consists of 124 seats of which 2% are reserved for non-Muslims and
17% for women only.
Districts
There are 24 districts in NWFP, which are divided into 18 Settled
Area Districts and 6 PATA Districts. The Provincial Administered
Districts are partially controlled by the central government in
Islamabad through President of Pakistan and Governor of NWFP.
The Provincial Assembly of NWFP does not have full authority to
implement and make laws for PATA, without consent of the President
of Pakistan, through Article 247 and 246 of 1973 Constitution which
governs Tribal Areas of PATA and FATA:
Important cities
Economy
NWFP's Dominance- Forestry
NWFP's share of Pakistan's GDP has historically been between 10.5%
to 12.1%. The part of the economy that NWFP dominates is forestry,
where its share has historically ranged from a low of 34.9% to a
high of 81%, giving an average of 61.56%. Currently, NWFP accounts
for 10% of Pakistan's GDP and 20% of Pakistan’s mining
output.
After suffering for decades due to the fallout of the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, today they are again are being targeted
for totally a different situation of terrorism.
Agriculture remains important and the main cash crops include
wheat, maize, rice, sugar beets, as well as various fruits are
grown in the province.
Some manufacturing and high tech investments in Peshawar has helped
improve job prospects for many locals, while trade in the province
involves nearly every product. The bazaars in the province are
renowned throughout Pakistan. Unemployment has been reduced due to
establishment of industrial zones.
Numerous workshops throughout the province support the manufacture
of small arms and weapons of various types. The province accounts
for at least 78% of the
marble production in
Pakistan .
Social issues
The NWFP continues to have an image problem. Even within Pakistan
it is regarded as a "radical state" due to the rise of Islamist
parties to power in the province and purported support for the
remnants of the
Taliban who are believed by
some to be hiding in the province.
The plagues of sectarianism, terrorism and insurrection have not
been a problem in the North-West Frontier and the local economy has
met with significant gains in spite of hosting millions of
Afghan refugees, many of who have been
integrated into the local society.
The Awami National Party sought to rename the province
Pakhtunkhwa, which translates to "Land of
Pakhtuns" in the
Pashto language.
This has been opposed by some of the non-Pashtuns, and especially
from Parties Like
Pakistan
Muslim League-N (PML-N) and
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The
PML-N derives its support in the province from primarily
non-Pashtun
Hazra regions.
The MMA, who until the elections of 2008, had a majority in the
NWFP government, proposed
Afghania as a compromise name.
It has
been suggested that the religious parties' power-bases in Punjab, are a central reason for opposing an
ethnically-based alternative name for NWFP.
After the
2008 general
election, the
Awami National
Party (ANP) formed a coalition provincial government with the
Pakistan Peoples Party, and
is supporting the PPP government in the centre and other
provinces.
The
strongholds of ANP are in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan,
particularly in the Peshawar valley of the NWFP, while Karachi
hosts one of the largest Pashtun populations in the
world with 3.5 million Pastuns live in Karachi. In the 2008
election, the ANP won two Sindh assembly seats in
Karachi.[20]
The ANP has been instrumental in fighting the
Taliban who are by-products of religious parties
like
JI and
JUI which formed
the MMA.
Folk music
Pashto folk music is popular in NWFP and has a rich tradition going
back hundreds of years. The main instruments are the Rubab, mangey
and harmonium.
Khowar folk music is popular in Chitral and northern Swat. The
tunes of Khowar music are very different from those of Pashto and
the main instrument is the Chitrali Sitar.
A form of band music composed of clarinets (surnai) and drums is
popular in Chitral. It is played at polo matches and dances.
The same
form of band music is also played in the neighbouring Northern
Areas
.
Education
The trend towards higher education is rapidly increasing in the
province and the NWFP is home to Pakistan's foremost engineering
university (Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute), which is located in Topi,
a town in Swabi district. The
University of Peshawar is also a
notable institution of higher learning. The
Frontier Post is perhaps the province's
best-known newspaper and addresses many of the various issues
facing the local population.
| Year |
Literacy Rate |
| 1972 |
15.5% |
| 1981 |
16.7% |
| 1998 |
35.41% |
| 2008 |
49.9% |
|
Sources:
This is a chart of the education market of North-West Frontier
Province
estimated by the government in 1998. Also see
[3532]
| Qualification |
Urban |
Rural |
Total |
Enrolment Ratio(%) |
| — |
2,994,084 |
14,749,561 |
17,743,645 |
— |
| Below Primary |
413,782 |
3,252,278 |
3,666,060 |
100.00 |
| Primary |
741,035 |
4,646,111 |
5,387,146 |
79.33 |
| Middle |
613,188 |
2,911,563 |
3,524,751 |
48.97 |
| Matriculation |
647,919 |
2,573,798 |
3,221,717 |
29.11 |
| Intermediate |
272,761 |
728,628 |
1,001,389 |
10.95 |
| BA, BSc… degrees |
20,359 |
42,773 |
63,132 |
5.31 |
| MA, MSc… degrees |
18,237 |
35,989 |
53,226 |
4.95 |
| Diploma, Certificate… |
82,037 |
165,195 |
247,232 |
1.92 |
| Other qualifications |
19,766 |
75,226 |
94,992 |
0.53 |
Major universities and colleges
Front view of the Islamia College,
Peshawar
See also
References
External links
University
of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar
, Topi
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