PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has bifurcated Kohistan district into two carving out one more administrative unit after which the total number of districts in the province has gone up to 26.

The announcement to the effect of the provincial government’s decision was made at a press conference addressed by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s adviser on information technology Abdul Haq Khan.

“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has fulfilled the longstanding demand of Kohistanis for splitting the Kohistan district into two – Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan,” said Mr Khan, a PTI-affiliated member of the provincial assembly from Kohistan.

Notified as a district in 1976, Kohistan prior to the incumbent provincial government’s decision to bifurcate it into two involved 7,492 square kilometres.

Justifying the bifurcation, Mr Khan said that people belonging to Lower Kohistan faced a lot of difficulties and incurred high transportation costs to access Dasu, the district headquarters. He said that the provincial government accepted the longstanding demand of the people of Kohistan and approved the creation of a new district.

After the bifurcation, the new administrative units would be called Upper Kohistan district and Lower Kohistan district. Both the districts will include two each tehsils, smaller administrative unit within a district.

The Lower Kohistan district, according to Mr Khan, would include Pattan and Paalas tehsils whereas the Upper Kohistan district would be composed of Dasu and Kundia tehsils. Both the districts, said Mr Khan, would have around 473,000 people each.