Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

By   Syed Shamsuddin   Dildar Ali Qamar’s FB post on Jani the other day impelled  this scribe to have a precise look at the latter’s life sketch and come up with instant outline. Jani whose  name is Yaqoob, has a well discernible style of his own - 'walk and talk' and what in French is called joie de vivre -  always shunning any nettlesome conversation or gibble-gabble. When cracking a joke which is his wont, he can often be seen doing it rather stammeringly when in full excitement and tempo. He is widely known and has a ubiquitous presence in Gilgit city and the nearby Danyore. An acclaimed humorist and comedian, his sole aim is to diffuse happiness and spread joy among all those who come across him in society regardless of caste, color or religion, sect whatsoever. Admittedly, such sentiments are rarely found with a very few in society endowed with a keen and powerful desire to keep striving so selflessly, for the societal harmony, cultivating happiness and pe...

By   Syed Shamsuddin   Saddened indescribably and shocked profoundly to learn about demise of Agha Syed Muhammad Yahya Shah - a great intellectual and sage who dedicated his entire life and yearned for bringing about a grand socio-political transformation in Gilgit-Baltistan. I well reminisce the days when I first saw Agha Sahib in early seventies, in his ebullient youth. It was the time when they had successfully brought about change and the Mirdoms of both Hunza and Nagar were abolished. In Nagar, late Qurban Ali and others accompanied him while there was a parallel movement underway in Hunza which was spearheaded by late Mola Madad, Muhammad Shafi Advocates along with others. This is precisely only one dimension of the sterling characteristics of late Agha Sahib while there are numerous aspects which single him out for his consistent striving in seeking a positive transformation in terms of governance in Gilgit-Baltistan. He equally embarked on an assiduous research work on...