Administrative units of Pakistan

Pakistan's provinces and territories were inherited from British India at independence on 14 August 1947. 2 days after independence, the Muslim-majority district of Murshidabad in Bengal moved from Pakistan to India due to an award by the Radcliffe Commission.[7] In 1947, Pakistan consisted of two wings, which were separated by 1600 kilometres of Indian territory. The western wing consisted of the merger of Northwest Frontier Province, West Punjab, and Sindh, the Baluchistan Chief Commissioners Province, thirteen princely states. The eastern wing consisted of East Bengal, the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet from the former British Raj province of Assam.

In 1948, Karachi was separated from Sindh to form the Federal Capital Territory. In 1950, the Northwest Frontier Province absorbed the princely states of Amb and Phulra while West Punjab renamed itself to Punjab. In 1952, the four princely states in the southwest formed the Baluchistan States Union.

In 1955, the One Unit Policy was launched by Muhammad Ali Bogra, whereby all the provinces and princely states of the western wing were merged and formed West Pakistan, with Lahore as the provincial capital. Simultaneously, East Bengal (including Sylhet and the Hill Tracts) was renamed to East Pakistan, with Dacca as the provincial capital. The One Unit Policy aimed to reduce expenditure and to eliminate provincial prejudices, but the military coup of 1958 signaled difficulties when the first military President, Ayub Khan, abolished the office of Chief Minister of West Pakistan in favour of Governor's rule.

On 7 September 1958, after four years of negotiations, including six months of intense negotiations, Pakistan purchased the Gwadar enclave from the government of Oman for 5.5 billion rupees/ USD $3 million (approx. $22,410,311.42 in 2017). Gwadar formally became part of Pakistan on 8 December 1958 after 174 years of Omani rule. In 1960, the federal capital moved from Karachi to Rawalpindi and in 1961, the Federal Capital Territory was merged into West Pakistan. In 1966, the capital was again moved to Islamabad. In 1962, Dacca was made the legislative capital of the country due to East Pakistan's high population.[8] In 1963, Pakistan entered into a treaty with China to transfer part of the Gilgit Agency to China (Shaksgam Valley—the Trans-Karakoram Tract) with the provision that the settlement was subject to the final solution of the Kashmir dispute.

In 1970, the second military President, Yahya Khan, abolished West Pakistan and established four new provinces: Sindh, Balochistan, Northwest Frontier Province and Punjab. In 1971, East Pakistan seceded to form Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Liberation War. In 1974, the remaining princely states of Hunza and Nagar were abolished and their territories merged into Gilgit Agency, to form the Northern Areas. In 1975, portions of the districts of Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan were separated to form the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. In 1981, the region around Islamabad was separated from Punjab, and renamed to Islamabad Capital Territory.

In August 2000, divisions were abolished as part of a plan to restructure local government, followed by elections in 2001. Many of the functions previously handled by the provinces had been transferred to the districts and tehsils. In 2008, the government restored the former divisions and appointed commissioners.

In 2009, the Northern Areas were renamed to Gilgit-Baltistan and became a de facto province.[9][10] In 2010, the Northwest Frontier Province was renamed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[11] In 2018, the National Assembly of Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed the historic FATA Merger Bill - with the adoption of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment Act of 2018. On 31 May, the final step in the merger of the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was completed, as President Mamnoon Hussain signed the 25th Constitutional Amendment Bill into law. Thus FATA status was abolished as a separate entity and was merged into Khyber Pakthunkhwa province.[12][13][14]

The District Coordination Officer is the administrative head of the District Administration. They have wide-ranging responsibility for overseeing, improving and directing the approved plans of the District Government.[15]

The Zila Nazim used to be the executive head of the District Administration until 2010 when the government gave their powers to the District Coordination Officers also. Their role is similar to district governor or prefect, with responsibility for implementing government strategy and developing initiatives arising out of it.[16]

In order to decentralize administrative and financial authority to be accountable to Local Governments, for good governance, effective delivery of services and transparent decision making through institutionalized participation of the people at grassroots level, elections to the local government institutions are held after every four years on none party basis by the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan.

Among the three tiers of local government, tehsil government is second tier of it. It is where the functions, responsibilities and authorities of districts government is divided into more smaller units, these units are known as "tehsils". The tehsils are used in all over the Pakistan except Sindh province where the word "taluka" is used instead, although the functions and authorities are same. The head of the Tehsil government is "Tehsil Nazim" who is assisted by the tehsil Naib-Nazim. Every tehsil has a Tehsil Municipal Administration, consisting of a tehsil council, Tehsil Nazim, tehsil/taluka municipal officer (TMO), chief officer and other officials of the local council.[17]

Members of union council including Union Administrator and Vice Union Administrator are elected through direct elections based on adult franchise and on the basis of joint electorate. However, for the election to the reserved seats for women in Zila Council proportionately divided among tehsils or towns shall be all members of the union councils in a tehsil or town. It is the responsibility of the Chief Election Commissioner to organize and conduct these elections.