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Background Information on Chitral

The district is inhabited mainly by Chitralis, a distinct ethnic group speaking a language called ‘khowar’. Chitral has a population of only 319,000 but a large geographical area. Ismailis (a branch of the Shia sect whose spiritual leader is the Aga Khan) constitute thirty percent of the population. (No official information is available on this point.) A very large proportion of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. Eighty percent of the farmers have less than five acres of land. There are no big landowners, a holding of fifteen acres being considered as large. There is very little industry and trade is mainly small scale. Remittances of Chitrali workers in Karachi constitute a very significant proportion of family income. Relatively to the rest of Pakistan, people are poor. Per capita income here could be half of the Pakistani average There appear to be no extremes of wealth and poverty.

However, local communities are said to be self-sufficient in food. Main crops are wheat, barley, rice, and a large variety of vegetables are produced in the valleys. There is also abundance of fruit. But fruit production seems not to be much commercialised. Although per capita income is very low and infrastructure is very poor (there is only 150 kilometres of black topped road for a region of nearly 15 thousand square kilometres) one does not see signs of destitution. People seem healthy, generally reasonably dressed for a poor country, cheerful and carry themselves with dignity. Neatly dressed children walking (some very long distances) to schools in neat uniforms and colourful caps present a very pleasing scene. People are very community spirited (as isolated mountain people usually tend to be), Ismailis and Sunnis have lived in complete harmony, and on the very few occasions when there has been trouble, it has invariably been brought about by outside instigators. The Kalash people (according to legend, the descendants of the stragglers of Alexander the Great’s army who practice a form of animistic religion) have been left alone with their own culture. There is complete absence of gun culture that mars certain other parts of Pakistan and the incidence of crime is reportedly extremely low.