Administrative units of Pakistan
 |
|---|
| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Pakistan |
Pakistan is a country in Asia. It is divided into five provinces and two territories. Pakistan also administers part of Kashmir. This part is divided into two separate areas. The rest of Kashmir is administered by India.
Provinces and federal territories
[change | change source]
List
[change | change source]Local government
[change | change source]Each province of Pakistan is divided into zillas - zillah is an Urdu word (ضلع) meaning district. There are 105 districts in Pakistan.
A district is divided into tehsils (تحصیل). A tehsils is similar to a county. Tehsils are used in all provinces except in Sindh province where the word taluka (Urdu: تعلقه) is used instead. Tehsils may contain villages or towns and cities.
Each tehsil is further divided into union councils. A union council is the smallest part of local government in Pakistan. They are sometimes made up of a few villages.
There are over 5,000 local government areas in Pakistan. Since 2001, these have been led by democratically elected local councils, each headed by a Nazim (the word means "supervisor" in Urdu, but is sometimes translated as mayor). Women have been allotted a minimum of 33% seats in these councils; there is no maximum limit to the number of women in these councils.
History
[change | change source]In the 1960s, Pakistan was simply divided into two "units" these were East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Shortly before East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh, West Pakistan reverted to a system with four provinces. The provinces consisted of subunits called "divisions", which were further subdivided into districts, tehsils, and villages or municipalities.
In August 2000, Pervez Musharraf's local government reforms abolished the "division" as an administrative tier. A system of local government councils was established, with the first elections being held in 2001. Since then Pakistan has had greatly changed the local government system. The government had a plan to allow devolution. This plan according to the government "follows the principle of subsidiarity, whereby all functions that can be effectively performed at the local level are transferred to that level."
This means mean that decisions are made locally by people who live in the area and not in far away cities.
Notes
[change | change source]- ↑ Chandigarh is the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana, and is a Union Territory, separate from the two states.[1]
- ↑ Raipur is the interim capital of Chhattisgarh. The town of Naya Raipur 17 km from Raipur is envisaged as the state's new capital.
- ↑ Panaji was the capital of Goa from 1843 when it was ruled by the Portuguese.[2]
- ↑ Mumbai / Bombay was the capital of Bombay Presidency which was a province until 1950. After that Bombay became the capital of Bombay State. Subsequently, Bombay State was split into Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1960.
- ↑ In 1960, under the Nagpur pact, Nagpur became the second capital of Maharashtra.[4] Although an official notification to this effect was only given in 1988. The India yearbook of the government of India still does not mention Nagpur, being either the second or winter capital of Maharashtra.
- ↑ Gangtok has been the capital of Sikkim since 1890. Sikkim joined the Indian Union in 1975.[5]
- ↑ Chennai (Madras) was the capital of the Madras Presidency since 1839, which was redrawn as Madras State in 1956. Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1968.
- ↑ After the formation of Telangana, as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, both states will share Hyderabad as their common capital for ten years. The new Andhra Pradesh Capital City capital is going to be Amaravati, decided by the Andhra Pradesh government in April, 2016.
- ↑ Dehradun is the interim capital of Uttarakhand. The town of Gairsain is envisaged as the state's new capital.[6]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Menon & Banerjea 2002, p. 5.
- ↑ Ring 1996, p. 288.
- ↑ "Dharamshala Declared Second Capital of Himachal | Hill Post". www.hillpost.in. 20 January 2017. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
- ↑ Kini 1974, pp. 34–35.
- ↑ Spate 1953, p. 200.
- ↑ Sati & Kumar 2004, pp. 9–10.
Other websites
[change | change source]- Government of Azad Kashmir
- Government of Balochistan Archived 2017-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
- Government of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Archived 2009-07-20 at the Wayback Machine
- Government of the Islamabad Capital Territory Archived 2014-10-12 at the Wayback Machine
- Government of the Northern Areas Archived 2006-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archived 2003-08-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Government of the Punjab
- Government of Sindh Archived 2013-05-31 at the Wayback Machine
- Decentralization Support Program Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
- National Reconstruction Bureau Archived 2006-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
| Provinces |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Territories | ||
| Autonomous regions | ||
See also: Subdivisions of Pakistan | ||