Puran is a
tehsil of
Shangla District of
North Western Frontier Province in
Pakistan.
Aloch is the headquarters of the tehsil. Puran tehsil comprises 9
Union Councils.
[1] The tehsil of Puran borders
Chakesar,
Buner,
Swat,
Kala Dhaka,
River Indus.
Major towns and villages of the tehsil are
Aloch,
Nimkalay,
Chagam, Sandovi,
Sanila, Bengalai. Kotakay, Kolalai, Chowgha and many more.
Aloch is the central town and is the
tehsil and
subdivision headquarters.
Puran is a green valley and has fantastic scenic beauty. The name Puran is derived from the Hindi word Pooran which means full moon. Residents of Puran believe that the name is probably because of the great natural beauty of the valley.
Puran Tehsil has a population of more than 90000 people. Literacy rate in Puran is about 10% for male and 5% for female. People mainly live on farming and grow three major crops namely
wheat,
maize and
rice. Fruits and vegetables are also grown but not on commercial scale. in puran there is a very small village behind kotkay named as bunerwalo where ancient big stone which is having some drawings and idols for worshipping on it and if some one dig that place may be someone can find some precious things
Agriculture in Puran depends on rains and no proper irrigation system exists in the valley. However, the valley gets enough precipitation and the crops are seldom effected due to no or less rains.
Rice fields are irrigated from natural springs and rivers. Puran is rich in small rivers and natural springs and underground water is a few meters from the earth surface in Aloch. Most of the people in Puran belong to the sub-sect
Babozai of the major tribe
Yousafzai. People of Puran are famous for their moral values and hospitality.
There have been various famous politicians from Puran including Pir Muhammad Khan and Engr. Amir Muqam. Pir Muhammad Khan originally belonged to
Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious political party of
Pakistan. He was elected as member of the
NWFP provincial assembly in general elections of 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2002. In 1997 he did not follow the decision of his party to boycott the general elections and ran the election as independent candidate. After his success, he joined the government and became minister. The party leaders expelled him from
Jamaat-e-Islami. Before elections 2002, he was succeeded to get back membership of the party and contested elections again from Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (
MMA) an alliance of religious parties including
Jamaat-e-Islami. The party, however, did not give him any prominent role in the government despite being the senior parliamentarian of the ruling party. Pir Muhammad Khan was killed in a terrorist attack at the residence of Engr. Amir Muqam in November 2007 at Peshawar.
Engr. Amir Muqam was elected as member of the National Assembly of
Pakistan in 2002 on
MMA seat, but he soon changed his loyalties and joined Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which was the ruling party at that time. He was succeeded to become federal minister and the provincial president of his new party PML(Q). During his tenure as member of the National Assembly he managed to get some funds from the federal government for development of his constituency. His major contributions are wide-spread electrification in Puran Tehsil and provision of Digital Telephone Exchanges in some towns of
Shangla. Dr. Ibadullah is the younger brother of Engr. Amir Muqam and is presently the District Nazim (Chief) of
Shangla.
Paragraph.