Upper Dir District

The British Raj honored Muhammad sharif Khan as Nawab of Dir in 1898 . By declaring his allegiance to the British Raj, Khan/Nawab, once exiled to Afghanistan by Umara Khan Mastkhel was seated as Nawab of Dir. He was succeeded by his son Nawab Aurang Zeb in 1904, who ruled until his death in 1925. His son Sir Shah Jehan succeeded him and ruled the state for 35 long years. He was dethroned and kept in house arrest in Lahore until his death in 1966 . He was succeeded by Mohammad Shah Khisro Khan. He left all the business at the mercy of his advisor, a man deputed by the Govt:of Pakistan to mould the state into a settled district through gradual implementation of laws. In 1969, it was merged as a district with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 1996, Dir District was divided into two districts-Lower and Upper Dir- with Timergara and Dir as their respective headquarters.

At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 947,401, of which 466,594 were males and 480,766 females. Rural population was 903,301 (95.35%) while the urban population was 44,100 (4.65%). The literacy rate was 46.09% - the male literacy rate was 64.84% while the female literacy rate was 28.85%. 471 people in the district were from religious minorities.[1]

Pashto was the predominant language, spoken by 90.78% of the population. Other languages, mainly various Kohistani languages, are spoken by 8.60% of the population.[1]

Upper Dir District has 4 Tehsils.[3]

• Dir
• Sheringal
• Larjam
• Wari

Except for Dir and a number of rapidly growing bazaar towns along the main roads, the population is rural, scattered in more than 1200 villages in the deep narrow valleys of the Panjkora and its tributaries.

Of these, notable villages are

Popular places[5]

• Dir (city)
• Dir (princely state)
• Lower Dir District
• Chitral District
• Swat District