Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

SURELY, the monumental struggle waged against an array of hostile forces to unshackle and free the people of Gilgit-Baltistan at a very critical moment, in the regional history marks a watershed being quintessentially demonstrative of the indomitable will, tenacity of purpose, exemplary courage, conviction and the firm hope. Great events like this do not at all, take place haphazardly but are in fact, the consequence of a people’s determination seeking an opportune moment to clear their soil of the alien rule. It is worth mentioning that he Sikhs had, first embarked on an adventurism to occupy Gilgit-Baltistan in 1939 while the Dogras carried it out virulently with sporadic incursions during the second half of the 19 th  century. This was perhaps, with the blessings of the British which at long last, resulted into their complete sway over the entire region which had never before in its history – from times immemorial to the medieval ever witnessed such a cataclysmic change le...

By  Syed Shamsuddin Admittedly, man’s expedient pursuits have overtime, ravaged the whole ecosystem endowed by nature. And the Gilgit-Baltistan scenario is just a microcosm of the environmental ravages being wrought by such pursuits while the global warming impact is yet another spectre dangling overhead. This is in addition to thousands of vehicles with improper tuning, plied in the region that emit carbon monoxide polluting the environment and meandering its way up the glaciers with pernicious effects catalyzing snow/glacier melting processes. These are all the factors which together, tend to wreak havoc on the environment. There can be no denying the fact that no environmental campaign whatsoever, may succeed sans encouraging the local people and getting them well on the board, for the effective implementation of a program. There is therefore the need to be responsive to the legitimate needs of the respective communities so that they could be weaned towards and induced ...

By  Syed Shamsuddin   Read part - 2 BEFORE CONCLUDING the instant write-up, it pertinent to advert to very interesting piece appearing recently in a regional Urdu daily (Daily Salam dated 30.09.2019) whereby the learned writer Nabi Wani, depicted the traffic scenarios obtaining in Gilgit-Baltistan. He aptly portrayed the situation rather in a succinct manner which may well be evocative of the interest of the readers as well as in bringing it home to those at the helm of affairs. Tersely putting it, he says it is not the very first road crash on the Babusar road and the KKH but that several such incidents have taken place so far. It seems to him that the transport companies have been issued licenses which become open-ended in the sense that with the exception of a very few, all of them own obsolete, worn out and for that matter, technically or mechanically unfit vehicles not worthy of being made on the road. Moreover, the drivers employed by them demonstrably are not tha...

By  Syed Shamsuddin Read part - 1 As against this, a precise summation of the scenario across Pakistan is termed as horrific. In this connection, it is pertinent to refer to a seminar on road safety measures at Karachi University (KU) early this year, to take stock of the situation. The dean of civil and petroleum engineering faculty at NED University was referred to as saying there were three major factors behind  road accidents. He said that 67% of the accidents become outrightly attributable to human errors, 28% to poor infrastructure and deteriorating condition of roads and 5% to unfit vehicles. It was concluded that there was a dire need to improve road infrastructure emphasizing that if one considers all relevant components while constructing roads, the number of accidents would reduce. Hailing the research being conducted at the varsity, the participants of the seminar underscored its continuity in order to create awareness and to provide relief to peo...