[3] It shares its borders with the province of Punjab to the east and the Balochistan districts of Dera Bugti to the south, Kohlu to the west, Loralai to the northwest and Musakhel to the north.

[4] The early history of District Barkhan is obscure, but it is said that this area remained under Muslim rulers and conquerors of Kandahar and India.

[5] Baro Khan the founder of the Barozai family of Pannis was a great fighter who came to Barkhan with his tribal people.

In 1883, Sardar Baloch Khan met Mr Bruce, the Political Agent of Thaal Chotiali, with a Jirga of his tribesmen.

Barkhan District lies between 69°3'-70° 4' East longitude and 29°37'-30°21' North latitude, consisting of one tehsil and eight union councils.

The location of Barkhan is 541 km (aerial distance) south-west (220 degrees bearing) of Pakistan's capital city Islamabad and 245 km east (97 degrees bearing) from Quetta City, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

The landscape of Barkhan consists of plains, valleys and mountains varying in ground elevation ranging from 841 to 2,031 meters above Mean Sea Level (MSL).

The Barkhan valley is enclosed on the north side by scattered low hills, which divide the drainage water of the valley from the waters flowing into the Rakhni stream in the southwest, and on the west and northwest side by the great Jandran range.

The hills in the district belong to the Suleman range; the principal hills are known as Kala Pahar in the north, Karwada, Bibar, Jandra and Mar or Mukhmar in the west, Andari and Sukha in the south, Phulai and Khawaj in the east, and Mazara, Tagha, Dig and Deka in the centre and Rakhni areas.

At Dhamani (Barkhan Tehsil) the stream becomes perennial up to its junction with the Kah River in Dera Ghazi Khan district.

Rakhni and Han join Kah Stream which then passes into the district of Dera Ghazi Khan.

The stream irrigates a very small area of Mauza Berg-Sham, and then its water passes in the Duki Tehsil.

[8] District Barkhan made headlines when million years old fossils of a dinosaurs was found in the area of Vatakari.

Etymology; Khetrani, honoring the Khetran tribe of Barkhan district; saurus means reptiles.

The species specific epithet barkhani, honoring the Barkhan which is the host District of dinosaurs.

The main motivation for granting Barkhan the status of a district was to provide basic facilities at a grassroots level and to give people easy access to public offices.

The district was administered by a single line of administration that covered both the rural as well as the urban areas.

The District Council can generate revenue by levying fees and various taxes as given in part II of second schedule of BLGA 2010.

A number of Federal and Provincial Government departments provide services at the district level.

The primary net attendance ratio of school-going age children was 39%, with girls lower than boys (36% versus 41%).

In some places, very minute quantities of coal were found, but the work was abandoned as there was no prospect of commercial benefits.