Pakistan is subdivided into four provinces, two federally administered areas and a federal capital territory. The provinces are subdivided into more than a hundred Zillahs, or districts and further subdivided into Tehsils (in Sindh, Talukas). At the most local level, there are also over five thousand local governments.
[edit] History
In the 1960s, Pakistan was simply divided into two "units" of 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 the 2001 Local Government Ordinances, Pakistan has embarked on a radical restructuring of the local government system. The government is implementing a devolution plan which, in its words, "follows the principle of subsidiarity, whereby all functions that can be effectively performed at the local level are transferred to that level. This has meant the decentralization to the districts and tehsils of many functions previously handled by the provincial governments."
[edit] Provinces and territories
Provinces:
Federal Territories:
Autonomous State:
Territory:
[edit] Local Governments
The provinces are divided into a total of 105 Zillahs (Urdu: ضلع) (districts). A zillah is further subdivided into tehsils (Urdu: تحصیل) (roughly equivalent to counties). Tehsils are used in all provinces except in Sindh province where the term Taluka (Urdu: تعلقه) predominates. Tehsils may contain villages or municipalities. There are over five thousand local governments 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 upper limit to the number of women in these councils.
Some districts, incorporating large metropolitan areas, are called City District. A City District may contain subdivisions called Towns and Union Councils.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
