The Muzaffarabad District (Urdu: ضلع مُظفّرآباد) is a district of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir in the disputedKashmir region.[1] It is one of the 10 districts of this dependent territory. The district is located on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers and is very hilly. The total area of the Muzaffarabad District is 1,642 square kilometres (634 sq mi). The district is part of the Muzaffarabad Division, and the city of Muzaffarabad serves as the capital of Azad Kashmir. The district is bounded on the north-east by the Neelum District and the Kupwara District of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region, on the south-east by the Hattian Bala District, on the south by the Bagh District, and on the west by the Mansehra and Abbottabad districts of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
A map of Azad Kashmir with the Muzaffarabad District highlighted in red
Population and languages
The total population of the district, according to the 2017 census, is 650,370.[2]
The main language of the district, spoken by about half of its inhabitants,[3] is generally considered to be a variety of Pahari. Though occasionally referred to in the literature as Chibhali[4] or Poonchi,[5] it is locally known as Hindko.[6] Its speakers tend to identify more with the Hindko spoken to the west,[7] even though perceiving their speech to be only slightly different from the Pahari varieties spoken in the Bagh District and further south in Murree.[8] The local dialect has a higher percentage of shared basic vocabulary with the central group of Pahari dialects (83–88%) than with the Hindko of the nearby Mansehra and Abbottabad districts (73–79%).[9]
Another language spoken in the district is Gujari, native to around a third of its population.[3] The local dialect is closely related to the Gujari varieties spoken in Hazara (83–88% similarity in basic vocabulary) and the rest of Azad Kashmir (79–86%).[10]Kashmiri is spoken in the city of Muzaffarabad. It is distinct from, although still intelligible with, the Kashmiri of the Neelam Valley to the north.[11] Other languages spoken include Urdu, Shina and Balti.[citation needed]
Administrative divisions
The district of Muzaffarabad is administratively subdivided into two tehsils, which are subdivided into several union councils.[12]
Muzaffarabad's education system exhibits a disparity between its overall ranking and school infrastructure. While the district achieved a national ranking of 6th with a score of 73.85 in the 2017 Pakistan District Education Ranking (by Alif Ailaan), its school infrastructure score was significantly lower at 105th with a score of 34.29.[13] This disparity highlights a lack of basic amenities in many schools, including electricity (11.7 score), drinking water (27.93 score), and boundary walls (40.09 score).[13] These shortcomings create an environment not conducive to learning.
Furthermore, the district faces a shortage of higher-level educational institutions. With 72% of schools being primary and only 28% offering above-primary education, students graduating from primary schools have limited options for continuing their education. This limited access, particularly for girls, contributes to a decline in enrollment rates. Reports on the Taleem Do app for the area substantiate these concerns, highlighting issues with inadequate infrastructure and a lack of furniture in schools.
Notes
References
^ abc The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary sources (a) through (e), reflecting due weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (h) through (i) below, "held" is also considered politicized usage, as is the term "occupied," (see (j) below).
(a) Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories."; (b) Pletcher, Kenneth, Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 16 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state."; (c) "Kashmir", Encyclopedia Americana, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, p. 328, ISBN978-0-7172-0139-6 C. E Bosworth, University of Manchester Quote: "KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partlv by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947"; (d) Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1191–, ISBN978-0-415-93922-5 Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China." (e) Talbot, Ian (2016), A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, Yale University Press, pp. 28–29, ISBN978-0-300-19694-8 Quote: "We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir."; (f) Skutsch, Carl (2015) [2007], "China: Border War with India, 1962", in Ciment, James (ed.), Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II (2nd ed.), London and New York: Routledge, p. 573, ISBN978-0-7656-8005-1, The situation between the two nations was complicated by the 1957–1959 uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule. Refugees poured across the Indian border, and the Indian public was outraged. Any compromise with China on the border issue became impossible. Similarly, China was offended that India had given political asylum to the Dalai Lama when he fled across the border in March 1959. In late 1959, there were shots fired between border patrols operating along both the ill-defined McMahon Line and in the Aksai Chin. (g) Clary, Christopher, The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 109, ISBN9780197638408, Territorial Dispute: The situation along the Sino-Indian frontier continued to worsen. In late July (1959), an Indian reconnaissance patrol was blocked, "apprehended," and eventually expelled after three weeks in custody at the hands of a larger Chinese force near Khurnak Fort in Aksai Chin. ... Circumstances worsened further in October 1959, when a major class at Kongka Pass in eastern Ladakh led to nine dead and ten captured Indian border personnel, making it by far the most serious Sino-Indian class since India's independence. (h) Bose, Sumantra (2009), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, pp. 294, 291, 293, ISBN978-0-674-02855-5 Quote: "J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad" (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million.), it includes the sparsely populated "Northern Areas" of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control." (i) Fisher, Michael H. (2018), An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, p. 166, ISBN978-1-107-11162-2 Quote: "Kashmir’s identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised “Line of Control” still separating Pakistani-held Azad (“Free”) Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir."; (j) Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. 10, ISBN978-1-84904-621-3 Quote:"Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'."
^Hallberg & O'Leary 1992, pp. 107, 111–12. For comparison, the shared basic vocabulary with the dialects spoken in the northernmost districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit is between 71–74%, with the Hindko of Balakot at 80% and with Urdu at 57%.
Akhtar, Raja Nasim; Rehman, Khawaja A. (2007). "The Languages of the Neelam Valley". Kashmir Journal of Language Research. 10 (1): 65–84. ISSN1028-6640.
Grierson, George A. (1919). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VIII, Part 1, Indo-Aryan family. North-western group. Specimens of Sindhī and Lahndā. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
Hallberg, Calinda E.; O'Leary, Clare F. (1992). "Dialect Variation and Multilingualism among Gujars of Pakistan". In O'Leary, Clare F.; Rensch, Calvin R.; Hallberg, Calinda E. (eds.). Hindko and Gujari. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 91–196. ISBN969-8023-13-5.
![A map showing Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan (shaded in sage green) in the disputed Kashmir region[1]](/en/File:Kashmir_region._LOC_2003626427_-_showing_sub-regions_administered_by_different_countries.jpg)
