Dera Ghází Khán district.—When the N. W. Frontier Province was separated from the Panjáb, the older province retained all the trans-Indus country in which Biluches were the predominant tribe. The Panjáb therefore kept Dera Ghází Khán. It has a river frontage on the Indus about 230 miles in length and on the west is bounded by the Sulimán Range, part of which is included within the district. The Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghází Khán and the Commissioner of Multán spend part of the hot weather at Fort Munro. The wide Indus valley is known as the Sindh. The tract between it and the Hills is the Pachádh. It is seamed by hill torrents, three of which, the Vehoa, the Sangarh, and the Kahá, have a thread of water even in the cold season. The heat in summer is extreme, and the luh, a moving current of hot air, claims its human victims from time to time. The cultivation in the Sindh depends on the river floods and inundation canals, helped by wells. In the Pachádh dams are built to divert the water of the torrents into embanked fields. The cultivated area is recorded as 1723 square miles, but this is enormously in excess of the cropped areas, for a very large part of the embanked area is often unsown. The encroachments of the Indus have enforced the transfer of the district headquarters from Dera Ghází Khán to a new town at Choratta. Biluches are the dominant tribe both in numbers and political importance. They with few exceptions belong to one or other of the eight organized clans or tumans, Kasránis, Sorí Lunds, Khosas, Laghárís, Tibbí Lunds, Gurchánís, Drishaks, and Mazárís. The most important clans are Mazárís, Laghárís, and Gurchánís. Care has been taken to uphold the authority of the chiefs. The Deputy Commissioner is political officer for such of the independent Biluch tribes across the administrative frontier as are not included in the Biluchistán Agency. Regular troops have all been removed from the district. The peace of the borderland is maintained by a tribal militia under the command of a British officer.
[View larger image]
Fig. 115.
![[View larger image]](#8833693713095719852_img115.jpg.id-4018779043743413449.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}