Administrative units of Pakistan - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pakistan
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Pakistan
Constitution Previous constitutions:1956 1962 1973 Annex (written 1949, incorporated 1985) Amendments Law
Government President (list): Arif Alvi Parliament Senate Chairman: Sadiq Sanjrani Deputy Chairman: Saleem Mandviwalla National Assembly Speaker: Asad Qaiser Deputy Speaker: Qasim Suri Executive: Prime Minister (list): Imran Khan Federal Cabinet Federal Agencies Civil Service Judiciary Supreme Judicial Council Supreme Court Chief Justice Federal Shariat Court Supreme Appellate Court Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Justices Islamabad High Court Provincial High Courts Chief Court Gilgit-Baltistan District Courts
Elections Election Commission Electoral College Recent elections Presidential: 2008 2013 2018 General: 2008 2013 2018 Political parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Pakistan Muslim League (N) Pakistan Peoples Party
Administrative units Provinces Balochistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Punjab Sindh Territories Islamabad Autonomous region Azad Kashmir Gilgit–Baltistan
Federalism Azad Kashmir government President Prime Minister Legislative Assembly Provincial governments Governors Chief Ministers Provincial Assemblies Local government Divisions Districts Tehsils Union councils
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Shah Mehmood Qureshi Diplomatic missions of / in Pakistan Passport Visa requirements Visa policy China India United States Kashmir conflict
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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.

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.

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.

• 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