Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000 residents,[3] who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns but smaller communities of Tajiks and others may also be found in the province.

There are natural forests in Ziruk, Nika, Gayan, and Bermal districts [1] Paktika, like many other areas of Afghanistan, has been severely deforested.

The tribes that reside in this area were mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus, who called them the "Pactyans" as early as the 1st millennium BCE.

In the 1970s, the provincial capital of the largely undeveloped and remote province of Paktika was moved from the town of Urgun to Sharana due to its proximity with the main highway, connecting it to the larger cities and commercial centres of Kabul, Ghazni and Kandahar.

As one of the most remote provinces in Afghanistan and an area that saw much devastation in previous years, Paktika suffers from a severe lack of critical infrastructure.

This is primarily due to the remoteness of the region and repeated attacks on aid workers and NATO forces.

On 1 November 2004, a civil affairs convoy was ambushed near Surobi, between the Shkin firebase and Orgun-E. U.S. Army Spc.

James Kearney, a turret gunner, died of a head shot from a sniper, which initiated the ambush.

[5] The Provincial Reconstruction Team base was named Camp Kearney on 21 November 2004 to honor the sacrifice of Spc.

[6] On Jun 18, 2008 in the Ziruk District Governor's compound, two members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, HMN Mark Retmier and CM1 Ross Toles, were killed due to rocket attacks.

Because the enemy was advancing so close to the outpost, the request for CAS was called in, but because of the DUSTWUN (large scale search) for PFC Bergdahl, (who went AWOL after abandoning his post only 100 km away from COP Zerok), air support was delayed.

[7] In November 2011, an estimated 60 to 70 Taliban insurgents were killed in an abortive attack on a joint Afghan-ISAF base in the Margha area of Barmal.

In a separate incident the governor of Sar Hawza district died in the same month after his vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

[9] In the spring of 2012 the 172nd Infantry Brigade opened the first Afghan National Army/ US Joint Artillery Fire Base in the Orgun District.

Eight civilians including a pregnant woman and a baby died when Polish soldiers shelled the village of Nangar Khel, where a wedding celebration was taking place.

U.S. Army PFC Bowe Bergdahl turned himself in to the Taliban on July 4, 2009, somewhere between OP Mest, near the town of Yahya Khel, and FOB Sharana.

In Afghanistan the Ghilji are scattered all over the country but mainly settled around the regions between Zabul and Kabul provinces.

After the great Ghilji rebellion in 1885–1886, led by Alam Khan Nasher, many members of the Ghilji tribe, such as; the Kharoti sub-tribe and particularly the Nasher clan were exiled from Loya Paktia (Paktia, Paktika and Khost) to Kunduz in the north by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan due to political reasons.

Often possessing great mechanical aptitude, the Ghilji nonetheless have an extremely low literacy rate hovering below 10% in Afghanistan.

The Ghilji regularly cross over between Afghanistan and Pakistan often being exempted from customs due to the acceptance of their nomadic traditions by officials from both countries.