Pakistan is located in South Asia. It is located at a very important place from geographic and strategic point of view. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan comprises of 4 provinces Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and KPK, one capital territory Islamabad, a federal territory FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and two autonomous states Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan.

In 1948, to form the capital territory, Karachi was separated was Sindh. In 1955, the One Unit Policy was introduced Muhammad Ali Bogra; according to which all of the princely states and provinces of western wing were merged and formed western Pakistan with Lahore as capital. In 1970, Yahya Khan abolished West Pakistan and established four provinces.

In 2000, the Pervez Musharraf government adopted a system of administration named “Local government system”, in which each province was sub-divided into districts, known as “zilas” locally). The districts form the topmost tier of the three tier local government and are further sub divided into tehsils (counties).

Villages and municipalities come under tehsils. The City Districts are big metropolitan areas which comprise of towns and union councils. The tehsils and union councils are the 2 lower tiers of the local government.

There were six tiers of the government: Country (i.e. Pakistan), Province (e.g. Sindh), Division (e.g. Rawapindi Division), District (e.g. Jehlum District), Tehsil (e.g. Sohawa Tehsil) and Union Council (e.g. Domeli U.C.)

The districts have the authority of carrying out certain functions independently. Each district is headed by a Nazim (Mayor). There are 105 provincial districts with 400 tehsils and over 6 thousand union councils.

Over all there are five thousand local governments. There are seven tribal agencies and six small frontier regions in FATA. Azad Kashmir has seven districts and Gilgit Baltistan comprises of six districts. Federal capital Islamabad has been given the status of a district.

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