Mastung district: the heart of Sarawan and a valley of apples

Introduction and location

Travelling south from Quetta, the city’s mountains slowly fall behind. Beyond the tunnel at the Lak Pass, an open, level valley appears, surrounded on all sides by dry mountains. This is Mastung district. It lies south of the provincial capital and borders Kalat, Nushki and Bolan. The district headquarters is Mastung city, on the national highway from Quetta to Kalat and Karachi.

Administratively, Mastung district consists of the sub-divisions of Dasht and Kurdgap. After the provincial reorganisation of July 2026, the district’s composition was kept the same: the tehsils of Mastung and Dasht, and the sub-tehsils of Khad Koocha and Kurdgap. According to the official page of the Kalat Division, the district has 20 union councils and two municipal committees.

According to the 2023 census, Mastung district has a population of 313,271, of whom 166,679 are men and 146,589 are women. The district covers 5,896 square kilometres, and its population density is about 53 persons per square kilometre. Most of the population, 272,897 people (87 per cent), lives in rural areas, while the urban population is 40,374 (about 13 per cent).

Before 1991, Mastung was part of Kalat district. It was given the status of a separate district under a notification of the Board of Revenue Balochistan dated 31 December 1991. At that time it comprised one tehsil and three sub-tehsils. For a long period it remained part of the Kalat Division. On 8 July 2026, a notification of the Balochistan Revenue Department divided the province into 11 divisions and 41 districts. Mastung was then removed from the Kalat Division and placed in the Quetta Division. The Quetta Division now consists of three districts: Quetta East, Quetta West and Mastung.

History

The name of Mastung appears in old books by Muslim geographers. According to Guy Le Strange’s well-known study of the geography of the Eastern Caliphate, the tenth-century geographers al-Istakhri and al-Muqaddasi counted Mastung among the towns of the region they called “Balis”, whose main city was Sibi. The valley has thus been a known and inhabited place for more than a thousand years.

Later, Mastung became part of the princely state of Kalat. According to the volume “Sarawan” of the 1907 Baluchistan District Gazetteer, Sarawan was the northern division of the upper districts of the state of Kalat, and the territory administered by the Khan was divided into two niabats, Mastung and Kalat. Mastung was the administrative centre of this northern part, and the area is still called Sarawan for that reason.

In the late nineteenth century, Mastung became an important turning point in relations between British India and the state of Kalat. In 1876, the agreement commonly called the “Treaty of Mastung” was concluded here between the Khan of Kalat and the Baloch chieftains, under the mediation of Robert Sandeman. It paved the way for the establishment of the British Baluchistan Agency. Some sources record the agreement under 1877, so the date needs to be verified.

After the creation of Pakistan, Kalat was made a separate district in 1954, and Mastung was one of its sub-divisions. In 1991 Mastung itself became a district, as mentioned above.

People and languages

Mastung is a centre of the Brahui language and culture. According to the 2023 census, about 89 per cent of the district’s population has Brahui as its mother tongue, about 7 per cent Balochi and about 2 per cent Pashto. The rest speak Urdu, Punjabi and other languages. The district’s population is largely rural, and most people are engaged in farming and livestock. Mastung city is the only major urban centre in the district, and trade, education and government offices are concentrated there.

Economy

Orchards are the basis of Mastung’s economy. According to the SMEDA district economic profile (2022), the main fruits grown here include apples, apricots, grapes, peaches, plums, pears, pomegranates, cherries and pistachios. Agriculture and allied sectors are the biggest support of the rural economy. Mastung’s apple is famous across the country. According to a research study based on 2013 data, farmers earned a net income of about Rs148,000 per acre from apple orchards in Mastung, and the cost-benefit ratio was 1 to 1.23.

Mastung city is the district’s trading centre, from where apples, apricots, grapes and pomegranates are sent to other parts of the country. Its closeness to Quetta and its location on the national highway help this trade. Livestock rearing is the second major occupation. However, the SMEDA report describes water shortage as the biggest problem for the district’s agriculture, because orchards depend on groundwater. The district also remains exposed to the risks of drought, floods and earthquakes.

Places of interest

Mastung’s greatest attraction is its valley itself. Its orchards fill with blossom in spring, and high rocky mountains stand around it. The SMEDA profile also cites the district’s geological structure and elevation as the reason for its quiet tourism significance.

On the way from Quetta to Mastung lies the Lak Pass, a mountain pass between the two districts where the road goes through a tunnel. Local people also call it the “Tunnel”. North of the district centre, the Kanak valley stretches west of Chiltan mountain to Quetta’s Aghbarg valley, while to the east are the valleys of Dasht and Gondin. Reliable material on the shrines and old settlements here is yet to be collected.