Poonch District, Pakistan
Poonch District
ضلع پونچھ | |
|---|---|
District of Azad Kashmir administered by Pakistan | |
top: Poonch Valley bottom:Tolipir | |
Interactive map of Poonch district | |
A map showing Poonch district shaded in Yellow along with Sudhanoti district | |
| Coordinates (Rawalakot): 33°51′12″N 73°45′5″E / 33.85333°N 73.75139°E | |
| Administering country | Pakistan |
| Territory | Azad Kashmir |
| Division | Poonch |
| Headquarters | Rawalakot |
| Government | |
| • Type | District Administration |
| • Deputy Commissioner | N/A |
| • District Police Officer | N/A |
| • District Health Officer | N/A |
| Area | |
• Total | 855 km2 (330 sq mi) |
| Population (2017) | |
• Total | 500,571 |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Urdu |
| • Spoken | Pahari-Pothwari |
| Number of Tehsils | 4 |
Poonch District (Urdu: ضلع پونچھ) is one of the ten districts of the Pakistan-administered territory of Azad Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.
It falls in the Poonch Division and is bounded on the north by Bagh District, on the north-east by Haveli District, on the south-east by the Poonch District of the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, on the south by Sudhanoti and Kotli districts, and on the west by the Rawalpindi District of Punjab, Pakistan.
The Poonch District is part of the greater Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. The district headquarters is the city of Rawalakot. It is the third most populous district of Azad Kashmir. Historically, the area now constituting Poonch District was part of the Sudhanoti region, which later became a tehsil of the former Poonch State.
The main language is Pahari, native to an estimated 95% of the population, but there are also speakers of Gujari, while Urdu has the status of the official language.