District - Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan's districts are local administrative units inherited from the British Raj. Districts were generally grouped into administrative divisions, which in turn formed provinces. Pakistan has 130 districts (including ten in Azad Jammu and Kashmir). They comprise villages, towns and cities. A district is headed by a district nazim (mayor), who is an elected official and the local controller of the district level officers of all the departments under provincial government. The district nazim heads an elected district council composed of councilors, who represent various district-level constituencies. The councils have a constitutional requirement to be composed of a minimum of 33% women, there is no upper limit to that; so women can comprise 100% of these councils but men cannot. Currently, there are no District Nazims and District Coordination Officers who are officers appointed by the provincial government have been delegated the powers of Nazims since April 2010.