Map - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province)
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the smallest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population after Punjab and Sindh. It shares land borders with the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the south, Punjab to the south-east and province of Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and north-east, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the east, Autonomous Territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the north-east. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is known as a tourist hot spot for adventurers and explorers and has a varied landscape ranging from rugged mountain ranges, valleys, plains surrounded by hills, undulating submontane areas and dense agricultural farms.

While it is the third-largest Pakistani province in terms of both its population and its economy, it is geographically the smallest. The province is home to 17.9 percent of Pakistan's total population, with the majority of its inhabitants being Pashtuns. Within Pakistan, K. Pakhtunkhwa borders Punjab, Balochistan, the Islamabad Capital Territory, and the Pakistani-administered territories of Gilgit–Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Once a stronghold of Buddhism, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the site of the ancient region of Gandhara, including the ruins of the Gandharan capital of Pushkalavati (located near modern-day Charsadda). The region's history is characterized by frequent invasions by various empires, largely due to its geographical proximity to the historically important Khyber Pass.

Although it is colloquially known by a variety of other names, the name "Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" was brought into effect for the North-West Frontier Province in April 2010, following the passing of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. On 2 March 2017, the Pakistani government considered a proposal for a merger of the adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as a repealing of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, which Pakistan had inherited following the partition of British India in 1947. However, some political parties opposed the merger, and instead called for the FATA to be reorganized as a separate province. However, on 24 May 2018, the National Assembly of Pakistan voted in favour of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, which would merge the FATA as well as the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subsequently approved the bill on 28 May 2018; it was signed into law on 31 May by erstwhile Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain, which officially completed the administrative merger process.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means the "Khyber side of the land of the Pashtuns, " where the word Pakhtunkhwa means "Land of the Pashtuns", while according to some scholars, it refers to "Pashtun culture and society".

When the British established it as a province, they called it "North West Frontier Province" (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of their Indian Empire. After the creation of Pakistan, Pakistan continued with this name but a Pashtun nationalist party, Awami National Party demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa". Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people, Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) was against that name since it was too similar to Bacha Khan's demand of a separate nation of Pashtunistan. PML-N wanted to name the province something other than which does not carry Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor ethnicities living in the province especially Hindkowans who spoke Hindko, thus the word Khyber was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan.

 
Map - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province)
Country - Pakistan
Flag of Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan , is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-largest Muslim population just behind Indonesia. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country in the world by area and 2nd largest in South Asia, spanning 881,913 km2. It has a 1,046 km coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China to the northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre.

Pakistan is the site of several ancient cultures, including the 8,500-year-old Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Balochistan, the Indus Valley civilisation of the Bronze Age, the most extensive of the civilisations of the Afro-Eurasia, and the ancient Gandhara civilization. The region that comprises the modern state of Pakistan was the realm of multiple empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid; briefly that of Alexander the Great; the Seleucid, the Maurya, the Kushan, the Gupta; the Umayyad Caliphate in its southern regions, the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavids, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, the Durranis, the Omani Empire, the Sikh Empire, British East India Company rule, and most recently, the British Indian Empire from 1858 to 1947.
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Currency / Language  
ISO Currency Symbol Significant figures
PKR Pakistani rupee ₨ 2
Neighbourhood - Country  
  •  Afghanistan 
  •  China 
  •  India 
  •  Iran