Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

By Syed Shamsuddin   QUITE PROPITIOUSLY, a flurry of activities is getting underway in the context of revival of Shina language in its original form and diction. This is in addition to the marked efforts afoot to build a consensus among the literary circles formed by Shina speaking communities all across the Shina speaking areas – mostly inhabiting northern Pakistan and part of the Indian held Kashmir- to popularize and universalize a homogenized approach to a unified code aimed at sustaining and preserving this language which is sadly on the wane. To give a recent example, Shakil Ahmad Shakil carried out a research work culminating in his products like ‘dade shilokeh’ (grandmas’s tales) and Shina Grammar, Aziz-ur-Rehman Malangi’s Shina Diwan and to top them all is Haji Shah Mirza’s translation of the Holy Qura’an into Shina which is greatly contributive to the existing literature in Shina. There is no gainsaying that viewed in terms of it originality of form, diction and et...

By Syed Shamsuddin   Apropos the passionate appeal contained in, and emerging from a video that came into circulation on social media the other day. The video was posted by Noor Pamiri – a New York-based GBian and the co-founder of Pamir Times – the pioneering community news and views portal of Gilgit-Baltistan, Kohistan, Chitral and the surrounding mountain areas – a voluntary, not-for-profit, non-partisan and independent venture initiated by the youth which hectically engaged in portraying and highlighting issues related to these mountain communities. Put in a nutshell, it unveils the pandemic-related travails Pamiri faced for the preceding 19 days on having been taken ill with Covid-19 symptoms so abruptly when says:‘By the Grace of God Almighty, was on the path of gradual recovery and has by now, recuperated to greater extent but nevertheless, am still forced to remain in isolation from my children until I finally go for an ‘Anti-body test essentially required for asce...

By   Syed Shamsuddin   GB’s Economic Throes: IN THE DAYS of yore, each household of the GB.s populace in addition to subsistence farming, tend cattle, sheep and goats in each valley as the fundamental means of the support system and as the scarce vegetation then would suffice the barest minimum needs of those communities not that large in size. In the changed scenarios, the prospects alarmingly dwindled away obviously because of population explosion being out-of-step exerting pressure on the available resources of the region. The inadequacy of the means of sustenance here become fundamentally attributable to the dearth of land as well as vegetation with there being absolutely no prospects whatsoever of giving a proportionate boost to these olden practices. Gone are the days when manure instead of the present chemical fertilizers was used in the context of mountain farming for organic food. Generally speaking, livestock breeding underpins mountain farming and hence is ...

In the face of one of the worst situations humankind has faced ever, in the form Covid-19, there is a need for solidarity among all the world nations. They need to help each other as the sufferings cannot be mitigated by isolated efforts. The exigency resulting from the current crisis necessitates maximal volunteer services to cope with emergent healthcare needs, especially of the poor nations. One is truly bewildered what the poor nations can do with the rickety healthcare systems they might have at this juncture as it’s requiring extraordinary efforts to mitigate situations. Sadly, despite immense progress witnessed by humankind in science and technology, the global healthcare landscape is still cumulatively pathetic as the current pandemic scenario has brought it to the fore. Take the example of the developed world. It is said that the US has about 170،000 ventilators but the experts there are worried about a shortfall since as many as 1 million Americans may need to be placed...

By Syed Shamsuddin IT HAS TO be born in mind that sans its being declared part of Pakistan, GB remains a ‘Special Territory’ for all intents and purposes. Simply lending a façade of or a veneering as of a province does not in reality make it a full-fledged constitutional province at par with the rest. It is nonetheless, quite surprising that the federation has been posting legions of federal civil servants of the CSS-cadre over the years, to GB as if it were a province whilst not considering the transfer of an equivalent number of the official of GB service to the federation on the same terms as a quid pro quo. It is worth mentioning that in the case of AJK id est the other ‘Special territory’, only two senior officials of the federal i.e the chief secretary and IGP – are posted while no other officials of federal service in the hierarchy below are posted there. Synoptically viewed, the people here in GB under these circumstances attribute their cumulative woes and pathetically sag...

The keyword that while taking any decision pertaining to Gilgit-Baltistan, the area’s geography, irrefutable past historical background, the events associated with the pre-partition days and models of governance in the area during the post-liberation period, till today, have to be approached holistically and pragmatically in order to arrive at a just and judicious decision right away in the weal of these people. The recent reduction of quota of jobs for GB tends literally to slam shut the door on the region and hence the matter needs be reviewed early to raise it to the unanimously demanded four percent. In the face of the simmering despondency among the youth under the circumstances, the view generally gaining currency is in sum that they feel literally lost in the heights of the Himalayas, mightiness of the Karakorams and the wilderness of Hindukush with their freedom lost to the Kashmir dispute. Such feelings need be addressed through effective actions as long as the core problem o...

By  Syed Shamsuddin   UNDENIABLY, the exigency resulting from the current crisis the world over necessitates maximal pro bono services to help cope with emergent healthcare needs. It is something that assumes the centrality in the current situations generally while it becomes all the more essential particularly in the case of the poor nations sans the wherewithal, to put it quite unexaggeratedly. Despite immense progress witnessed by humankind in science and technology, the global healthcare landscape is still cumulatively pathetic as the current pandemic has brought it to the fore.  Take the example of the developed world,  it is said that the US has about 170,000 ventilators but the experts there are worried about a shortfall since as many as 1 million Americans may need to be placed on ventilators at some point. In Italy, the situation is even direr. This dearth is to such an extent that the doctors have had to choose between which patient should get a ventilat...