Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

NAs home to abundant gold deposits, published in DAWN dated September 17, 2001 Syed Shams ud Din Gold deposits are in abundance throughout the Northern Areas, a geological survey of the region revealed. The quality is deemed to be superior as compared to that found in other parts of the world. All that is needed is an innovative approach to derive maximum benefit, and adoption of consistent policies geared towards prudent exploitation of this precious metal to usher in a revolutionary transformation in economic terms. Gold washing has been rife throughout the Northern Areas from time immemorial, but the process that has been and still is in practice is primitive and quaint, and does not yield tangible results. Golg deposit samples extracted from different places in the Northern Areas were put on display at an impressive stall manned by officials of the Planning and Development (P&D) Department of the Northern Areas in Gilgit at the time of the Silk Route festival...

Untapped wealth of NAs, Published in The Frontier Post dated February 28, 1999 By Syed Shams ud Din Pakistan occupies a highly important place in the geo-strategic parlance and which has assumed still greater significance with the dismemberment of the Soviet Union in the early ‘90s and this becomes more relevant in the case of Northern Areas where Pakistan borders India, China, and Afghanistan while the nascent Central Asian States (CARs) lie only at a hand-shake away on the north-western fringes. It is however, noteworthy that the Tsarist Russia and Victorian England remained locked over the vast expanse   of the Central Asia steppes and the relentless struggle spanning most part of the nineteenth century, came to be known as the ‘Great Game’. Many nations have been gravitating in regional groupings so far, to deliberate upon economic issues to resolve them through a mutually advantageous interaction in the context of trade and commerce. Pakistan is endowed wi...

By   Syed Shamsuddin   (original version published in The Muslim dated July 12, 1998) UNEXAGGERATEDLY, Gilgit-Baltistan abounds in talent notwithstanding the fact that this part of the country lagged far behind the rest of the regions in socio economic context and ipso facto in the field of education as well due to past neglects. Regardless of the erstwhile snags, this fertile soil has thrown up many onto the literary and poetical firmaments who made a niche in their respective spheres by what may be called ‘burning the proverbial midnight oil’. Precisely, the fertility of this soil gets well testified by a fair number of eminent writers, journalists, authors, poets, intellectuals, historiographers, mountaineers and climber in addition to a great many who aspired to high ranking positions in both civil and military service of the country with still many more who became top professionals - doctors, engineers etc. To put it succinctly, the region has overtime, been hum...

By  Syed Shamsuddin     Under the circumstances, the subsistence farming here, save at a very few places, does not suffice the needs of the respective households with the yield not catering to the barest minimum requirements with the dilemma that persists being that the rest of the erstwhile land at villages earlier under cultivation, is now being steadily turned into mere habitat by the teeming village folk obviously because of ominous demographic pressures. The explosion being witnessed is so much enormous that the land historically remaining under agrarian activity can even hardly provide a shelter for the increased populace now.  One having visited such a village barely some three decades ago would certainly be flabbergasted today on seeing the abysmal diminution and horrific decimation of the cultivable as well as the orchard land which paints a very gloomy picture due to mushrooming houses on the former fields and orchards while the old habitat itself...

Social & Economic transformation of NAs-II (The Muslim - January 4, 1998) By Syed Shams ud Din As carried out by the newspaper, Dr. Shaheena Hafeez Malik – perhaps the   first Pakistani women of the world repute having acquired immense expertise in ‘mountain farming’ techniques is currently serving with the “International Cnetre for Integrated Mountain Farming Development” (ICIMFD) based in Nepal. She certainly has to her credit a varied experience of closely monitoring mountain farming particularly in Gilgit-Baltistan where she has been working with the Agha Khan Rural Supports Programme (AKRSP) prior to her present assignment in ICIMFD. She has thus had an opportunity of carrying out ample research in this region in the context of how to give a boost to mountain farming aimed at positive socio-economic transformation. What is nevertheless of more significance is the raison d’etre of the organization she is presently attached to that solely aims at bringing abo...

By  Syed Shamsuddin   The turning point in the scientific progress achieved today has, in fact, generated a resonance at the jubilant NASA in the United States signifying man’s, rather superman’s preparedness with an alacrity, to leave for the Mars to find a breathing space there on a swift departure from this choking planet. The access of the man to Mar is undoubtedly a hallmark which will go down in the history of mankind. This is also in the sense that it is taking place on the very threshold of the 21st century where the man instead, seems poised with all optimism, to make a safe flights to the said planet obviously for making it habitable as the one already occupied by him has reached the abyss of pollution caused by him whether intentionally or otherwise. The premonitions like direct penetration of ultra violet radiation in the earth as a result of a perforated ozone coupled with unabated ozone emission of obnoxious chemicals and the radiation caused by perennial nu...

The Muslim dated September 22, 1997 Author: Syed Shams ud Din In short, the people of these areas were, in one way or the other, undergoing enormous stress and strains resulting from the incessant taxation vis-à-vis the economic doldrums they were always in. In the rest of the agency, no development whatsoever, was ever underway except a water channel the construction of which would at the most, be undertaken with hundred per cent participation of the public or construction of a track in the same manner. The arrival of a government official to a village those days would be heralded with the beating of the drums signifying a ‘specific emergency’. It is noteworthy that the musicians here are apt in these specific tunes from times immemorial. These are halved into those of war and peace, etc. This practice seems to be rife here from olden times, where beating of the drum by the village musicians on a specific tune would abruptly call the village folk to gather at once signifyin...