Lower Dir District

Lower Dir District (ښکته دير ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Timergara is the district's headquarters and largest city. The Lower Dir district was formed in 1996, when Dir District was divided into Upper Dir and Lower Dir districts. On 22 January 2023, both Lower Dir and Upper Dir districts were further bifurcated to create a new Central Dir District. Lower Dir is famous for its beautiful snow-capped mountains, valleys, and pleasant weather. The primary industry in Lower Dir is tourism, which is now rapidly growing.

Lower Dir district borders with Swat District to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Upper Dir to the north and Malakand and Bajaur District to the south.

History
At the time of independence of Pakistan, Dir was a princely state ruled by Nawab Shah Jehan Khan. Dir was merged with Pakistan in 1969, declared a district in 1970, and split into Upper and Lower Dir in 1996.

Education

 * The University of Malakand is a public university located in Chakdara.
 * The University of Dir is a newly established university located in Timergara.

Demographics
At the time of the 2017 census, the district had 153,788 households and a population of 1,436,082. Lower Dir had a sex ratio of 1023 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 61.83% - 74.45% for males and 49.45% for females. 40,314 (2.81%) lived in urban areas. 33.42% of the population was under 10 years of age. 471 (0.03%) people in the district were from religious minorities. Pashto was the predominant language, spoken by 99.30% of the population.

National Assembly
NA-6 (Lower Dir-I) and NA-7 (Lower Dir-II) are constituencies of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Lower Dir district. These areas were formerly part of NA-34 (Lower Dir) constituency from 1977 to 2018. The delimitation in 2018 split Lower Dir into two separate constituencies, NA-6 (Lower Dir-I) and NA-7 (Lower Dir-II).

Sudivisions

 * 1) Adenzai Tehsil
 * 2) Balambat Tehsil
 * 3) Khall Tehsil
 * 4) Lal Qilla Tehsil
 * 5) Munda Tehsil
 * 6) Samar Bagh Tehsil
 * 7) Timergara Tehsil

Notable people

 * Nawabzada Shahabuddin Khan, Former Ruler of Lower Dir
 * Siraj ul Haq, politician
 * Muhammad Bashir Khan, politician
 * Naseem Shah, cricketer
 * Zahid Khan, Ex-Senator
 * Abaseen Yousafzai, Pashto poet