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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commonly abbreviated KP or KPK and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan to the south; Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory, and Azad Kashmir to the east; and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and northeast. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied geography of rugged mountain ranges, valleys, rolling foothills, and dense agricultural farms.
The history of the present province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass. It was the site of the ancient Gandhara, and was historically a stronghold of Buddhism. Islam became dominant in the region after the 11th-century conquest of the Hindu Shahi kingdom by the Ghaznavids. The predecessor of the present province was constituted in 1901, under the British Raj, when the North-West Frontier Province was created by bifurcating the northwestern districts of the erstwhile Punjab Province.
Although it is colloquially known by a variety of other names, the name "Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" was brought into effect for the North-West Frontier Province in April 2010, following the enactment of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. On 24 May 2018, the National Assembly of Pakistan voted in favour of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, which merged the FATA as well as the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
While it is the third-largest Pakistani province in terms of both its population and its economy, it is geographically the smallest. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's share of Pakistan's GDP has historically comprised 10.5%, amounting to over US$ 30 billion. The population of the province forms 16.9% of Pakistan's total population and is multiethnic, with the main ethnic groups being the Pashtuns, Hindkowans, Saraikis, and Chitralis, among others.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means the "Khyber side of the land of the Pashtuns", where the word Pakhtunkhwa means "Land of the Pashtuns", while according to some scholars, it refers to "Pashtun culture and society". The province has had various names throughout history. Other names used or proposed for the province include Gandhara, Afghania, Pashtunistan, Pathanistan, Sarhad, Abaseen, Khyber, or a combination of names, such as Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa. The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subsequently approved the bill on 28 May 2018; it was signed into law on 31 May by then President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain, which officially completed the administrative merger process.
When the British established it as a province, they called it "North West Frontier Province" (abbreviated as NWFP) due to its relative location being in the northwest of the British Indian Empire. After the creation of Pakistan, Pakistan continued with this name but a Pashtun political party, Awami National Party based in the province demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa". Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people, Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people.
Pakistan Muslim League (N), the largest opposition party at the time was ready to change the province's name by supporting the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP, in a constitutional amendment but wanted to name the province something which does not carry an exclusively Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor communities living in the province especially the Hazarewals of the Hazara region who spoke Hindko thus the word Khyber was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan.
For over a hundred years after its founding as a province of British Raj in 1901, it was known as the North-West Frontier Province (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of the nation. Unofficially, it was known as Sarhad (Urdu: سرحد), derived from the province's Urdu name given to it by the Mughals, which means "frontier".
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commonly abbreviated KP or KPK and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan to the south; Punjab, Islamabad Capital Territory, and Azad Kashmir to the east; and Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and northeast. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied geography of rugged mountain ranges, valleys, rolling foothills, and dense agricultural farms.
The history of the present province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass. It was the site of the ancient Gandhara, and was historically a stronghold of Buddhism. Islam became dominant in the region after the 11th-century conquest of the Hindu Shahi kingdom by the Ghaznavids. The predecessor of the present province was constituted in 1901, under the British Raj, when the North-West Frontier Province was created by bifurcating the northwestern districts of the erstwhile Punjab Province.
Although it is colloquially known by a variety of other names, the name "Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" was brought into effect for the North-West Frontier Province in April 2010, following the enactment of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. On 24 May 2018, the National Assembly of Pakistan voted in favour of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, which merged the FATA as well as the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
While it is the third-largest Pakistani province in terms of both its population and its economy, it is geographically the smallest. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's share of Pakistan's GDP has historically comprised 10.5%, amounting to over US$ 30 billion. The population of the province forms 16.9% of Pakistan's total population and is multiethnic, with the main ethnic groups being the Pashtuns, Hindkowans, Saraikis, and Chitralis, among others.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means the "Khyber side of the land of the Pashtuns", where the word Pakhtunkhwa means "Land of the Pashtuns", while according to some scholars, it refers to "Pashtun culture and society". The province has had various names throughout history. Other names used or proposed for the province include Gandhara, Afghania, Pashtunistan, Pathanistan, Sarhad, Abaseen, Khyber, or a combination of names, such as Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa. The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subsequently approved the bill on 28 May 2018; it was signed into law on 31 May by then President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain, which officially completed the administrative merger process.
When the British established it as a province, they called it "North West Frontier Province" (abbreviated as NWFP) due to its relative location being in the northwest of the British Indian Empire. After the creation of Pakistan, Pakistan continued with this name but a Pashtun political party, Awami National Party based in the province demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa". Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people, Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people.
Pakistan Muslim League (N), the largest opposition party at the time was ready to change the province's name by supporting the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP, in a constitutional amendment but wanted to name the province something which does not carry an exclusively Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor communities living in the province especially the Hazarewals of the Hazara region who spoke Hindko thus the word Khyber was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan.
For over a hundred years after its founding as a province of British Raj in 1901, it was known as the North-West Frontier Province (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of the nation. Unofficially, it was known as Sarhad (Urdu: سرحد), derived from the province's Urdu name given to it by the Mughals, which means "frontier".
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