It has been functioning since 1895. In 2018, it became a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan with merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is bordered to the north by the North Waziristan District, to the north-east by Bannu and Lakki Marwat Districts, to the east by tribal areas adjoining the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan Districts, to the south by Zhob District of Balochistan Province and tribal areas adjoining Dera Ismail Khan District, and to the west by Afghanistan.[1]