The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is the smallest in size of the four provinces of Pakistan and is home to the Pashtuns. Neighboring regions include Afghanistan to the west and north, the Northern Areas to the northeast and Kashmir to the east. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas form a buffer between the NWFP and Balochistan. Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory are to the south and east. The principal language is Pashto and the provincial capital is Peshawar . The Provincial Assembly of North-West Frontier Province is unicameral and consists of 124 seats of which 2% are reserved for non-Muslims and 17% for women only.

Geography

It covers an area of 74,521 sq. km. According to the 1998 census, the total population of N.W.F.P. was approximately 14 million out of whom 52% are males and 48% females. The density of population is 187 per sq. km. Geographically the province could be divided into two zones: the northern one extending from the ranges of the Hindukush 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 raid with hot summers and relatively cold winters and scantly rainfall. Its climate varies from very cold (Chitral in the north) to very hot in places like D.I. Khan.

Climate

The climate of North-West Frontier Province varies immensely for a region of its size, most of the many climate types found in Pakistan .  The combination of a short but powerful summer monsoon with frequent winter cloud bands gives a bimodal rainfall regime in central parts of NWFP. Dir and Hazara districts are some of the wettest places in Pakistan : annual rainfall at Dir averages 58 inches, of which 400 mm falls during the summer monsoon from July to September and twice that amount during the winter rainy season from December to April.
Temperatures in this region are somewhat warmer than in Chitral, and even at 1,200 metres in Abbottabad the heat and humidity can be oppressive during the monsoon season. In winter, most of Swat receives significant snowfall, but in Hazara temperature usually is around 41°F.

Demographics and Society

The NWFP has an estimated population of roughly 21 million that does not include more than 3 million Afghan refugees and their descendants in the province.The majority language spoken in the NWFP is Pashto. Smaller pockets of Hindko-speaking Hindkowans, who are often bilingual in Pashto as well, are found in cities and Seraiki-speakers live in the southeast. The majority of the population speaks Pashto while Hindko is the predominant language in the erstwhile Hazara division and Seraiki is spoken in Dera Ismail Khan. Bilingualism and trilingualism is common with Pashto and Urdu being the primary other languages known.

The main Pashtun tribes in the South are the Yusufzai, Khattak, Marwat, Afridi,Shinwari, Orakzai, Bangash, Mahsud, Mohmand, Wazir, and Gandapur and some smaller tribes. Further north, the prominent Pashtun tribes are, Swati, Tareen, Jadoon and Mashwani. The mountainous extreme north regions of the province is also home to diverse ethnic groups and languages, such as Khowar, Kohistani, Shina, Torwali, Kashmiri, Kalasha and Kalami.

Economy

After suffering for decades due to the fallout of Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, today they are again being targeted for totally a reverse situation. Agriculture remains important and the main cash crops include wheat, maize, rice, sugar beets, as well as various fruits are grown 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 known to man, as the bazaars in the province are renowned throughout Pakistan . Unemployment has been reduced due to establishment of industrial zones.

Education

The trend towards higher education is rapidly increasing in the province and the NWFP is home to Pakistan 's foremost engineering university (Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute), which is located in Topi, a town in Swabi district. The University of Peshawar is also a notable institution of higher learning. The Frontier Post is perhaps the province's best-known newspaper and addresses many of the various issues facing the local population. This is a chart of the education market of North-West Frontier Province estimated by the government in 1998.

Its snow-capped peaks and lush green valleys of unusual beauty attract tourists and mountaineers from far and wide while its art and architecture no less known than the historic Khyber Pass. Once the cradle of Gandhara civilization, the area is now known for its devout Muslims who jealously guard their religion and culture and the way of life which they have been following for centuries.

The warlike Pukhtoons, who live in NWFP and the adjoining areas of Afghanistan , making them a race apart, a chosen people, and no one, has ever managed to subdue them. The Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs, British and Russians have suffered defeat at their hands. The Pukhtoons are divided into numerous sub-tribes and clans, each defending its territory and honor. In addition, the Pukhtoons serve as Pakistan 's first line of defense along the Durand Line, the border drawn in 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand, then foreign secretary of British India .

People and Culture

Pakhtoon designates a person who speaks Pashto. Pathan is a Hindi term adopted for them by the British. The racial composition of the Pukhtoons is less than clear. The tribes who dwelled in the area in the days of the Greek historians are believed to be part of the great Aryan horde which had moved down from Central Asia a millennium earlier. Over the course of centuries, the Greek, Persian, Turk, and Mongol invaders who passed through the Frontier have added their blood.

Nearly one-third of the population of NWFP is non-Pakhtoon. In the tribal areas, they are called Hamsaya or Kadwal. In the border areas of Hazara and Derajat, social norms more closely resembling those in Punjab and Kashmir may be discerned. Clan groups remain important, but mainly as social networks, particularly for marriages. Chitral has a separate language and culture of its own; a visible difference crossing over from Dir is that the carrying of arms is uncommon. Most distinct are the indigenous Kalash, people now confined to three small valleys in Chitral. Their way of life is rooted in the worship of ancestral spirits and trees. Their unique customs attract a lot of attention from visitors. However, due to the conversions of the Kalash to Islam, their age-old traditions are rapidly becoming extinct.

Around 68 per cent of the households in NWFP are Pukhtu speaking, eighteen per cent are Hindko speaking while Seraiki is the mother tongue of four per cent. Around eight per cent of households speak local languages, such as Kohwar in Chitral district, while Urdu and Punjabi speaking migrants account for only two per cent of the households