Paktika is a broad, hilly province on Afghanistan’s south-eastern border, stretching from the plains of Katawaz to the Toba Kakar range on the frontier with Pakistan. Its capital is the small highway town of Sharana, while Urgun, in the east, is its most populous town. The mountains of Sar Hawza give rise to the Gomal River, and the province’s upland woods are one of the homes of the chilgoza pine.
Hills, plains and the Gomal
The Shinkay Hills run through the centre of the province, and the Toba Kakar range follows its border with Pakistan. The Gomal River, whose flow rises and falls with the seasons, begins in the mountains of Sar Hawza district, runs south and then turns south-east into Pakistan, where it eventually reaches the Indus.
Natural forests survive in districts such as Ziruk, Nika, Gayan and Barmal, although, like much of Afghanistan, Paktika has lost a great deal of its tree cover. In Urgun district researchers have recorded mixed woods of chilgoza pine and deodar cedar, where many trees also bear the marks of firewood cutting and repeated cone harvesting.
Pine nuts of the south-east
The chilgoza grows on high hills in Paktika, Paktia and neighbouring provinces, roughly between 1,800 and 2,600 metres. Its cones ripen in late summer and are gathered in September and October; they are left in the sun for two to three weeks and then beaten to release the seeds. The nuts are eaten fresh or lightly roasted and are among the most welcome gifts at family gatherings. Afghanistan as a whole produces some 800–1,000 tonnes of chilgoza in an average year, about 60 per cent less than three decades ago.
A young province with old roots
Paktika is a relatively new administrative unit. In the 1920s the Katawaz region, today shared between Paktika and Ghazni, belonged to a province of Kabul far larger than the present one. In 1964 the government announced plans for a new province of Urgun and Katawaz; once Paktika took shape, its capital was moved from Urgun to Sharana, which lies on the main highway.
About 96 per cent of the people are Pashtun, and Pashto is the main language. The province lies within the lands of the Ghilzai (Ghalji) tribal confederation, and the Kharoti and Sulaiman Khel are among the Ghilzai tribes of the region. Some eastern Ghilzai groups have long lived as pastoral nomads, spending the summer in Afghanistan’s central highlands and the winter on the Indus plains beyond the border. Paktika has 20 districts, of which Urgun and Barmal are the most populous.