Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is Previously Known as NWFP

The Pakhtoon Khwah is the land of Pakhtoon or Pathans as called by the English. This is the north western province of Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, situated in the northwestern region of the country. It was formerly known as North West Frontier Province and commonly called Sarhad, which in Urdu means,frontier. Its provincial capital and largest city is Peshawar, followed by Mardan. It shares a border with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the west, Gilgit Baltistan to the northeast; Azad Kashmir, Islamabad and Punjab to the east and southeast. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa does not share a border with Balochistan which lies to its southwest. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also shares an international border with Afghanistan, connected through the Khyber Pass. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means, Khyber side of the land of Pakhtuns, while only the word Pakhtunkhwa means, Land of Pakhtuns and according to some scholars it means, Pakhtun culture and society. When the British established it as a province, they called it, North West Frontier Province, due to its relative location being in north west of their Indian Empire. After independence of Pakistan, Pakistan continued with this name but a Pakhtun nationalist party, Awami National Party demanded that the province name be replaced by, Pakhtunkhwa. Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people, Sindhi people and Balochi people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for the Pashtun people.

It is also the site of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, the ruins of its capital, Pushkalavati, modern day Charsadda, and the most prominent center of learning in the Peshawar Valley, Takht-i-Bahi. It has been subject to the suzerainty of the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Shahis, Ghaznavids, Mughals, Sikhs, and British Empire throughout its long history. 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the third largest province of Pakistan by the size of both population and economy though it is geographically the smallest of four. It comprises 10.5% of Pakistan's economy, and is host to 11.9% of Pakistan's total population, with the majority of the province's inhabitants being Pashtuns, Hazarewal, Chitrali, and Kohistanis. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Afghanistan was the only member of the United Nations to vote against Pakistan's accession to the UN because of Kabul's claim to the Pashtun territories on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. Afghanistan's Loya Jirga of 1949 declared the Durand line invalid, which led to border tensions with Pakistan, and decades of mistrust between the two states. Afghan governments have also periodically refused to recognize Pakistan's inheritance of British treaties regarding the region. During the 1950s, Afghanistan supported the secessionist Pushtunistan movement, although it failed to gain substantial support amongst the
population of the North West Frontier Province. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan 1979 to 1989, the NWFP served as a major supply base for the Afghan Mujahideen who fought the Soviet Union during the 1980s. As a result of the Soviet invasion, over five million Afghan refugees poured into Pakistan, mostly deciding to reside in the NWFP, as of 2007, nearly 3 million remained. The province remained strongly influenced by events in Afghanistan thereafter. The 1989 to 1992 civil war in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces led to the rise of the Afghan Taliban, which had emerged in the border region between Afghanistan, Balochistan, and FATA as a formidable political force. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sites primarily on the Iranian plateau and comprises the junction where the slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains on the Eurasian plate give way to the Indus-watered hills approaching South Asia. This situation has led to seismic activity in the past. The famous Khyber Pass links the province to Afghanistan, while the Kohalla bridge in circle Bakote Abbottabad is a major crossing point over the Jhelum River in the east.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the third largest provincial economy in Pakistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's share of Pakistan's GDP has historically comprised 10.5%, although the province accounts for 11.9% of Pakistan's total population. The part of the economy that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa dominates is forestry, where its share has consistently ranged from a low of 34.9% to a high of 81%, giving an average of 61.56%. Currently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounts for 10% of Pakistan's GDP, 20% of Pakistan's mining output and, since 1972, it has seen its economy grow up in size by 3.6 times. After suffering for decades due to the fallout from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, today they are again being targeted for a different situation of terrorism. Agriculture remains important and the main cash crops include wheat, maize, tobacco, in Swabi, rice, sugar beets, as well as fruits are produced in the province. Some manufacturing and high tech investments in Peshawar has helped improve job prospects for many locals, while trade in the province involves nearly every product. The bazaars in the province are renowned throughout Pakistan. Unemployment has been reduced due to the establishment of industrial zones.Workshops throughout the province support the manufacture of small arms and weapons. The province makes up at least 78% of the marble production in Pakistan. Geographically the province could be divided into two zones, the northern one extending from the ranges of the Hindu Kush to the borders of Peshawar basin and the southern one extending from Peshawar to the Derajat basin. The northern zone is cold and snowy in winters with heavy rainfall and pleasant summers with the exception of Peshawar basin, which is hot in summer and cold in winter. It has moderate rainfall. The southern zone is arid with hot summers and relatively cold winters and scanty rainfall. The major rivers that criss cross the province are the Kabul, Swat, Chitral, Kunar, Siran, Panjkora, Bara, Kurram, Dor, Haroo, Gomal and Zhob. Its snow capped peaks and lush green valleys of uncommon beauty have enormous potential for tourism.

Nature has gifted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with rich cultural and tourism friendly environment. It has the potential of becoming a big tourist attraction in the world, due to its scenic beauty, geographical location, climate and natural resources. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is exceptionally rich in terms of multitudes of tourist attraction. The essence of this attraction is visible from the remarkable natural picturesque comprising beautiful rivers, splendid water falls, spell-bound lakes mostly in the mountainous region and green valleys in most parts of the province. Due to its geographical location, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa has had been a confluence of different civilizations which flourished and vanished with the passage of time. The quasi contiguity of the province, with the Central Asian states and with xiangiang province of China attracted many migrants, businessmen, warriors and fortune seekers in different ages for settlement. Hindko and Pashto folk music are popular in Pakhtunkhwa and has a rich tradition going back hundreds of years. The main instruments are the rubab, mangey and harmonium. Khowar folk music is well known in Chitral and northern Swat. Tunes of Khowar music are very different from those of Pashto and the main instrument is the Chitrali sitar. A form of band music composed of clarinets, surnai, and drums is popular in Chitral. It is played at polo matches and dances. 
The same form of band music is played in the neighbouring Northern Areas and The interaction among different races and their co-existence led to a rich cultural heritage. The glimpses of such heritage are evident from the Ghandhara archaeological sites at Gur Khattree Peshawar, Takh-i- Bahi, Mardan, Seri Behlol, Mardan, Shabaz Gari, Mardan, Nimo Gram Buddhist Stupa, Swat, and collection of Ghandhara art preserved at Swat Museum, Chakdara museum, Dir Lower and Peshawar museum. The dominant language of the Province, Pashto, belongs to the Irani branch of the Aryan family of languages. It consists of two main dialects. Pakhto and Pashto. Pakhto is the hard or north-eastern version spoken in Bajaur, Swat and Buner, by the Yusufzai, Bangash, Orakzai, Afridi and Momand tribes. Pashto is the soft or south western version spoken by the Khattaks, Wazirs, Marwats and other tribes in the south. The earliest Pashto works were composed in the Yusufzai dialect which is reviewed classical. It is the purest and the clearest form of the language. Pakhto or Pashto is the main language, spoken and understood mainly in the central districts. Hindko, a Punjabi dialect, is in majority in Hazara Division and also in the central old city areas of Nowshera, Kohat and Peshawar cities. Saraiki, a Punjabi dialect, is in the majority in the southern districts of DI Khan and Tank Khowar, by people in the north especially in majority in district Chitral. Standard Punjabi, minority living in major cities and all cantonment areas. Kohistani, majority in Kohistan district and the north half of Swat District. Gojr minority throughout northern half of the province. Dari, Hazaragi, Farsi, Tajik and varieties of Persian spoken by Afghan refugees. Other languages include, Kashmiri, Shina, Romani, Burushaski, Wakhi, Balti, Balochi,  Brahui, Sindhi and English, official and used in tourism, only Urdu and English are found as written languages in the city. English, the official language of Pakistan, is primarily used for official and literary purposes. 

The climate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa varies immensely for a region of its size, encompassing most of the various climate types found in Pakistan. The province stretching southwards from the Baroghil Pass in the Hindu Kush covers almost six degrees of latitude, it is mainly a mountainous region. Dera Ismail Khan is one of the hottest places in South Asia while in the mountains to the north the weather is mild in the summer and intensely cold in the winter. The air is usually very dry; consequently, the daily and annual range of temperature is quite large. Rainfall also varies widely. Although large parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are typically dry, the province also contains the wettest parts of Pakistan in its eastern fringe specially in the monsoon season from mid June to mid September and In South, in the districts of Dir, Swat and Hazara Division, the climate becomes more typical of the Indian subcontinent, although a considerable proportion of the annual precipitation still comes from frontal cloud bands during the winter months. The combination of a short but powerful summer monsoon with frequent winter cloud bands gives a bimodal rainfall regime in central parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.