MALAKAND DISTRICT, having an area of about 952 square kilometres and a population of over 4.5 lakhs as per population census of 1998 is situated in the lower reaches of the Swat region. Its limits start when the last boundary of Shergarh village in Mardan District touches the outskirts of Sakhakot village as one travels from Peshawar to Swat on the main highway. At the meeting point between Shergarh and Sakhakot, police and custom check posts are functioning and the point is known as Sakhakot Board. Travelling through Sakhakot one enters Dargai village, which is followed by the mountainous terrain of about 15 kilometres known as Malakand Pass or Darrah Malakand much less difficult to cross than before because of a mattled road in it now. Crossing through the same hilly pass you will enter the country's largest Batkhela Bazar. You proceed onwards till Landakay village where the limits of District Malakand end and District Swat welcomes you.
In ancient history the name of Malakand has appeared as Mala Kund or Mullah Kandao. There exist different versions vis a vis its genesis as "Malakand". Some historians say that the word Malakand is a combination of two Persian words i.e mala and kund. In Pushto mala means aamail (garland) and kund means ubo (water). They give the impression that when anyone crosses the Malakand Pass the river Swat looks like a mala (aamail).
Another concept is that the name Malakand has been derived from the words Mullah Kandao. Those who believe on this concept take it as combination of two words---Mullah and Kandao. Mullah means a religious saint and Kandao means a lofty place.
Some people term the name Malakand as "Mlakandao" which means curved like the backbone of the body. The version that looks more convincing is based on the premise that due to the very steep nature of the pass, travellers after reaching its top, would complain of backache and thus ask for 'kund' which in Pashto is a tonic for restoration of normalcy, and 'Mala' in Pashto means 'for me'-- and thus 'Mala Kund' that is 'tonic for me' gave the name Malakand to the small hamlet on the top.
All the notions about the name of Malakand have one point similar and that is the characteristic of being a difficult territory or place to climb on. In fact it is situated on a curved line almost in a zig zag position. Many poets in the past have also termed the mountainous terrain very difficult to negotiate. Khushal Khan Khattak describes in one of his couplets that the pony riders will find it more difficult to climb on the path going to Malakand and cautions those having lamb feet not to think of climbing on the Malakand pass.
Any how the name Malakand is now-a-days an important and well-known name and has been adopted in the same form by many other villages in the Swat and Dir districts.The area surrounded by Malakand--- on the south till Sakhakot Board, on the north Pull Chawki or Chakdara Bridge, towards the east till Landakay and to the west till Kot Agra comes in the limits of Malakand District. In addition to the above clarification Malakand is bounded on the north by Lower Dir district, on the east by the district of Buner, on the south-east by Mardan district and south-west by Charsadda district and Mohmand Agency. It is also bounded by a range of mountains on the north-east separating it from district Swat and another range of mountains to the west separating it from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies.
In papers the area is still an agency known as Malakand Agency or Malakand Protected Area but in 2001, after implementation of the Devolution Plan, a full-pledged district government has been established in it headed by the District Nazim who is assisted by a District Naib Nazim, District Coordination Officer (DCO), Commandant Malakand Levies, Tehsil Nazimeen, Union Council Nanzimeen and heads of all the district departments.
Administratively, Malakand has been divided into Swat Ranizai and Sum Ranizai tehsils. These tehsils are Batkhela and Dargai where Tehsil Municipal Administrations have been established. A part of Malakand is occupied by the Uthmankhel clan of Pukhtoons (Pathans), while towards the south, at the bottom of Malakand Pass, live the Ranizai known as Sam Ranizai. Those living beyond the pass towards Swat are Swat Ranizai. The road in the pass has many turns and zigzags and appears to have been scientifically designed. Before partition the road in this hilly pass was very narrow and at the turning edges, vehicles from the upper side would have to stop to give way to those coming from the lower side. Near the lowest point due to difficulty in cutting down the road edges at the time of construction of the hilly road, a 100 feet tunnel has been dug out.
Now few years ago, the NWFP government allocated funds for widening of the road and now two vehicles can easily pass through it without interrupting the vehicles coming from the opposite direction. The tunnel has also been widened and the rocks on the outer south side were cut down that enabled the construction company to establish a bypass road. Though, that road has now been abandoned by the traffic, however, in case of emergency the same road would be available for keeping flow of the traffic smooth.
Being a key route to Swat, Dir, Buner, Shangla and Chitral districts, the Malakand Pass has remained for years the target of foreign invasions. The ancient route between Central Asia and India passes through it. Before the British occupation, it represented Pukhtoon grandeur. Prominent Pukhtoon Sardars particularly Ranizai--a division of the Yousafzai Pathans inhabited it. The chief town of Ranizai
was Dheri Alladand, where is the tomb of a holy man, Mian Allahdad alias Chishtee Baba, a dervish, held in great reverence by the Pukhtoons of these parts.
Thana, Batkhela, Malakand, Dargai and Sakhakot are important towns of Malakand. Malakand is about 2705 feet above sea level.
Geological surveys identifies that the northern part of Malakand is occupied by the main mineral thrust material also known as Melange Zone rocks. Composed of volcanic, phyllites, slates, green schist, quartzite and other oceanic metasediments. The middle part of the Malakand Protected Area comprised metasediments and granitic rocks. The granitic rocks are named as Malakand granite and Chakdara and Bazdara granite. The Malakand Power House tunnel or Benton Tunnel passes through these rock formations. In the south near Dargai is the ophite rocks, known as Dargai ophiolite. These ophite rocks contains chromite, soapstone, asbestos, manganese and magnesite.
