Harnai () is a district in the northeastern part of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Harnai is the principal town of this district and serves as its administrative headquarters.
Until 2007, Harnai had been a tehsil of Sibi District. In August that year, the Balochistan Government announced the Harnai district would be created by splitting the Sibi district and forming the new district from Harnai and Shahrag tehsils and the sub-tehsil of Khost.
The name Harnai refers to an influential Hindu personality, Harnam Das, supposed founder of Harnai town, the capital of Harnai District. The town is quite close to Loralai, Ziarat, Sibi, and Quetta. Harnai is surrounded by imposing hills on all sides. The encircling hill ranges have the resounding names of 'Khalifat' and 'Zarghun'. Harnai proper has a population of about 200,000. The majority of the population of Harnai are Tareens and they mostly speak a unique dialect, or language, Tarino (Wanetsi), which is quite different from the Pashto spoken in other parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, and is probably a mixture of Pashto, Urdu and other languages developed as a 'lingua franca' sometime during the 18th and 19th centuries, when a variety of people of different ethnic origins lived here. There seems to be no earlier historical record or trace of it.
Harnai is surrounded by mountainous ranges. The minimum and maximum winter temperature of the area is âÂÂ2ÃÂC to 20ÃÂC. The summer is extreme in the area and the minimum and maximum temperatures range from 20ÃÂC to 48ÃÂC. Harnai has a fertile rainy season during monsoon time. In general, Harnai has pleasant weather in the winter season.
As of the 2023 census, Harnai district has 16,393 households and a population of 127,571. The district has a sex ratio of 111.89 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 39.83%: 48.91% for males and 29.71% for females. 54,999 (43.11% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 33,433 (26.21%) live in urban areas.
Islam is the largest religion with 99.13% of the population. Christianity is the second largest religion.
At the time of the 2023 census, 89.24% of the population spoke Pashto, 8.20% Balochi and 0.7% Sindhi as their first language.