Nowshera District

Nowshera District (Pashto: نوښار ولسوالۍ‎, Urdu: ضِلع نوشہرہ‎) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.[2] The capital and district headquarter is Nowshera city.

Nowshera District

ضلع نوشہرہ
District
Location of Nowshera District (highlighted in red) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan
Country Pakistan
Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
DistrictNowshera District
HeadquartersNowshera
Union Councils47
Government
 • District NazimLiaquat Khattak
Area
 • District1,748 km2 (675 sq mi)
Population
 • District1,518,540
 • Density870/km2 (2,300/sq mi)
 • Urban
338,650
 • Rural
1,179,890
Time zoneUTC+5 (PST)

Overview and history

Nowshera was a tehsil (sub division) of Peshawar until 1988, when it became a district. It is bordered by Peshawar District to the West, Mardan District to the North, Charsadda District to the North West, Swabi District to the North East, Kohat District to the South, Orakzai Agency to the South West & Attock District to the East.

Previously it was known as Nowkhaar Province till it was annexed into British India via the Durand Line Agreement. Prior to its establishment as a separate district in 1990, Nowshera was part of Peshawar District.[3] The district was also part of the Peshawar Division until the reforms of The Government of Pakistan.

Total area of Nowshera is 1,748 km². The population density is 608 persons per square kilometre. The total agricultural area is 52,540 hectares. The main source of income of the region is agriculture.

Demographics

The population of Nowshera district, according to the 2017 census, is 1,518,540[4] while the population, according to the 1998 census, was 874,000.[5][6] The population of the district over the years is shown in the table below.[7]

Census Year Population Rural Area Urban Area
1951 222,527 170,072 52,455
1961 276,937 188,968 87,969
1972 410,718 307,783 102,935
1981 537,638 386,647 647,343
1998 874,373 150,991 227,030
2017 1,518,540 N/A N/A

Languages

The predominant language is Pashto, which according to the 1998 census is spoken natively by 91% of the population.[8] The previous census of 1981 reported that in the then tehsil of Nowshera, Pashto was the language of 88% of households, while Punjabi accounted for 4.3%, Hindko – 4.2%, and Urdu – 2.9%.[9]

Education

Nowshera district is home of many excellent education institutions. The district has a public sector University of Technology, Nowshera[10][11] and private sector Northern University, Nowshera.[12] It also houses the campus of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan[13] in Pabbi town while it has a campus of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar in Jalozai town.[14] The district also has a public sector medical college: Nowshera Medical College, Nowshera.[15][16]

It is also home to many degree colleges: Government Post Graduate College Nowshera, Government Home Economics College Nowshera, Government College Akbarpura,[17] Government Degree College Pabbi[18] and Government Girls Degree College Pabbi.[19]

According to the Alif Ailaan Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017, Nowshera district is ranked 71 out of 155 districts in Pakistan in the quality of education while for facilities and infrastructure, the district is ranked 14 out of 155. It is vast improvement from Rankings of 2016, when the quality of education ranking was 71 out of 151 while facilities and infrastructure, the district was ranked 42 out of 151.[20]

Administration

The district is administratively divided into 3 Tehsils.[21][22]

Union Councils

The district is divided into 47 Union Councils. The largest by area is Nizampur & the smallest by area is Pabbi.

Towns and Villages

The main towns in Nowshera District are Nowshera city (Capital), Badrashi, Pabbi, Jalozai, Akora Khattak, Jehangira, Risalpur, Khairabad and Nizampur. The main villages are below.

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