Upper Chitral District

Upper Chitral District

توری ݯھیترارو ضلع‎
ضلع چترال بالا
Upper Chitral District توری ݯھیترارو ضلع‎; ضلع چترال بالا
District
	Top: Karambar Lake; Qaqlasht Meadows above Buni
	Location in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Division	Malakand
Established	2018
Headquarters	Buni
Government
• Type	District Administration
• Deputy Commissioner	Mr. Muhammad Irfan Uddin PMS (BPS-18)
• District Police Officer	Shah Jahan (BPS-18 PSP)
• District Health Officer	N/A
Area
• District	8,392 km2 (3,240 sq mi)
Population (2023)
• District	195,528
• Density	23/km2 (60/sq mi)
• Urban	0
• Rural	195,528
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Numbers of Tehsils	2
Website	upperchitral.kp.gov.pk

Upper Chitral District (Khowar: توری ݯھیترارو ضلع‎; Urdu: ضلع چترال بالا‎) is an administrative district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Kho people are the dominant ethnic group in the district, forming 99.84% of the total population.

Chitral River flows across the length of the district. Upper Chitral District along with Lower Chitral District were part of the erstwhile Chitral District which was the largest district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, covering an area of 14,850 km². Previously, it formed part of the Chitral princely state that encompassed the region until its incorporation into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in 14 August 1947.^[3] The erstwhile Chitral District was bifurcated into Upper Chitral and Lower Chitral Districts in November, 2018.^[4]

The town of Buni is the headquarters of the Chitral Upper District.^[3] It shares a border with Gilgit-Baltistan to the east, with Badakshan province of Afghanistan to the north and with the Upper Dir District to the southwest and with Swat District to the southeast. A narrow strip of Wakhan Corridor separates Chitral from Tajikistan in the north.

Climate

Chitral has a warm steppe climate influenced by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Summers are pleasantly warm without ever getting too hot. Winters are extremely cold; longer periods with subzero temperatures are not uncommon. Precipitation figures here are higher than in other regions in Pakistan.

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1961	58,213	—
1972	71,383	+1.87%
1981	86,919	+2.21%
1998	133,815	+2.57%
2017	169,297	+1.25%
2023	195,528	+2.43%
Sources:^[5]

As of the 2023 census, Upper Chitral district has 26,365 households and a population of 195,528. The district has a sex ratio of 105.75 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 73.83%: 84.87% for males and 62.11% for females. 44,351 (22.73% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. The entire population lives in rural areas.^[2]

In the 2023 census, 782 (0.40% of the surveyed population) people were from religious minorities, half Christians and half 'Other' religions.^[6]

99.84% of the population spoke languages recorded as 'Other' on the census. The main language is Khowar, sometimes called Chitrali, spoken by the Dardi Kho. Wakhi is spoken in the northern regions along the Afghan border.^[7]

Administrative Divisions

National Assembly

The district along with Lower Chitral District is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-1.

Member of National Assembly	Party Affiliation	Year
Abdul Akbar Khan	Muttahida Majlis e-Amal	2018

Provincial Assembly

The district along with Lower Chitral District is represented by one elected MPA in the provincial assembly who represent the following constituencies:PK-1