The
demographic information regarding provinces of Pakistan presented to general
public is usually pretty off and in some cases do not even make any mathematical
sense. Subsequent to the merger of FATA
with KP the demographic miscalculations in KP becomes more profound. For
example some publications state that 18% of the population of KP is Hindko
speaking, however, upon research not one recent empirical study was found where
global Hindko speaking exceeds 3.7 million worldwide (rounded to 4 million) i.e.
including Hindko speakers of Pakistani Kashmir, Punjab and other areas outside
KP. If we impose that number on 30.5 million and 35.5 million we get 13% and
11%, respectively. Even if we consider
entire population of Hazara Division to be Hindko speaking then Hindko speakers
would represent 15% of the merged province. It may, however, be noted that out
of 7 districts of Hazara Division, only Abbottabad is overwhelmingly Hindko,
while Ghazi Tehsil of Haripur District, and Ogai Tehsil of Mansehra District is
Pashto speaking. Districts of Torghar and Battagram are also Pashto speaking,
while Kohistan upper and lower have Kohistani as majority language.
Keeping
the above example in our analysis, it is ascertained that KP is the most
homogenous province having 82% population being Pashto speaking, followed by
Punjabi's in Punjab at 75%, 60-62% Sindhi's in Sindh and around 50% Balochi
& Brahvi combined in Baluchistan.
Finally, the interesting fact is that
around 38 Pakistani districts have Pashto majority, followed by 21 Sindhi, 20
Punjabi, 19 Balochi, 13 Seraiki, 8 Urdu,
4 Potohari, 3 Brahvi and Hindko each, 2 Koistani and 1 Chitrali.
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