Short answers, pulled from the story.
A sarkar was an administrative division used mainly in the Mughal Empire, sitting between the Subah (province) above it and Mahallas or Parganas below it. It functioned as a middle tier of territorial governance.
The sarkar system was replaced by the Chakla system in the early 18th century.
The Northern Circars were five individual districts making up a former division of British India's Madras Presidency. The word Circar is an alternate spelling of sarkar, reflecting the persistence of the Mughal administrative term into the colonial period.
Pakhli was an ancient sarkar that is now part of Hazara, Pakistan.
The Pakhal Sarkar was an area within Mansehra district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
A sarkar was divided into Mahallas or Parganas, which were smaller local units where taxation, land records, and local governance took place.