Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

By   Syed Shamsuddin   INDEED the smooth-sailing transition to the 2nd caretaker government upon completion of its term by the outgoing PML-N government augurs well. It would certainly pave the way in the like manner, for the polls in a congenial atmosphere to get the process going equally smoothly.  The prospective elections for GBLA will be 3rd election holding promise of an uninterrupted continuity since the very first government formed after the general GBLA elections in the wake of promulgation of Gilgit-Baltistan Governance Order, 2009. Governor Gilgit-Baltistan Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpon administered oath to the caretaker Chief Minister Mir Afzal Khan the day before after he latter’s selection and appointment was notified by the federal government vide notification as follows: “Pursuant to Article 48-A(2) of the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018, the Chairman of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council in consultation with the incumbent Chief Minister, Gilgit-...

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...

By  Syed Shamsuddin   First besetting Wuhan City of Hubei province in China, CoVID-19 has, with time, swept across all the continents of the world save for Antarctica.  It is said to be a zoonotic disease, which means it spreads from animals to human beings. However, more credence is said to be lent by scientists/epidemiologists to the view that its outbreak was more likely from wild animals like bats, and Pangolin. Be it as it may, the disease has by the time horrifically assumed pandemic proportions for having affected South Asia then descending on Iran. In its aftermath, a large number of people contracting the pandemic, traveled from and entered into Pakistan from these countries which became the fundamental cause of and instrumental in its outbreak in Pakistan. It is noteworthy that China battled against the disease so valiantly and successfully that they have, by the time, not only been able to stem the tide of the pandemic there but are very well poised to offer...