Khar Bajaur was part of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas until the region was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on May 31, 2018.

The vast majority of Khar Bajaur residents expectedly speak Pashto as their mother tongue, the predominant language of ethnic Pakhtuns (Pashtuns) and of the derivatively-named Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK).

As of 2017, 98.78% of Khar Bajaur residents recorded Pashto as their mother tongue with other residents recording Urdu (1,165), Brahui (416), Punjabi (189), Balochi (151), Sindhi (129), Kashmiri (108), Saraiki (86), Hindko (11), and 'other' (127) as mother tongues.

Khar Bajaur Tehsil is politically represented in the National Assembly of Pakistan (the lower house of the national parliament) in the NA-8 Bajaur constituency and in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the PK-21 Bajaur-III (Gujran, Pachagan, Paindakhel, Mandal, and Alizai sections) and PK-22 Bajaur-IV (remaining sections) constituencies.

In both bodies, Khar Bajaur Tehsil (as well as Bajaur District and most of KPK) historically elects candidates from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party established by Pakistani cricketer and 22nd Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who is seen as a fierce advocate for the nation's Pakhtuns, many of whom feel disenfranchised by Islamabad.