Giving Gilgit-Baltistan a cold shoulder

The game of hollow commitments and unplanned government steps paved the path where the people are likely to trust the underhanded tactics of their leaders. People of Pakistan had entrusted their interests to Imran Khan and his team by burning all the boats as the preceding parties dogged them for decades. When the party won the chance to bite at the cherry, it failed to deliver. This party is also sworn as a conventional side whose cupidity of getting into power and waiting for the next is at the same level. More, a massive conflict between the verbal assurances and actions of the political reign of PTI can be easily seen in every decision-making process. Conflicts within the party and disparaging remarks about other parties contribute to their unpopularity daily.

The redoubtable rattrap of murre is the failure of the top brass. The government’s inactiveness to respond to such calamities and inadequacy of political knack jointly caused this tragedy. Ceaseless allegations on the previous regimes are not the cure-all of such grievous blows nor giving solace to or mourning over any loss. Any controlling party is recognized only by their steps to overcome or compensate the casualties, but the case is odd for the current party. They repeatedly retaliated harshly or won the blame game over people as long as they believed that cursing the previous governments would lessen the public’s anger. After four years in authority, the government can no longer use the early government’s policy as an alibi for its failure.

After the thorough prognosis of the Murree episode, the public believed that the administration could have avoided the incident if they had done their job correctly. The irony is that the responsible authorities and mouthpieces of the state are backing up the notion of creating more traveler spots on a par with Murree without admitting their failure to avoid such destructions. These ideas are illogical because the dysfunctionality of government machinery and slim pickings of policies inflames the situation further. To promote tourism in a country, you will need gleaming roadways for easy travel, psychological demands, gastronomic and lodging safety. Another nail in the coffin for incomparable excursions that are hard to deliver in developing nations like Pakistan is improving or empowering local institutions.

People’s preference for alternative winter destinations in Pakistan, such as Malam Jabba, Kalat, Parachinar, Chitral, Astore, Hunza, Skardu, and Gilgit-Baltistan, has shifted as a result of the dangerous Murree incident. When a question of where in Pakistan is the coldest comes up, the glacier regions of Gilgit-Baltistan are unquestionably the answer. The present state of affairs in Gilgit-Baltistan is not as worse as Murree, howbeit the absence of proper roads has been hanging over people’s heads like the sword of Damocles. As a result of dreadful passages, the number of Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) is very high.

The annual report for 2019 craves to focus on road accidents, but it is more somber. From 2014 to 2019, the KKH recorded 221 traffic accidents in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, ranging from Sost to Chilas, with 75 fatalities and 146 non-fatalities. Accidents include deaths of 84 people, where 71 were male and 13 females. The numerical value of total injuries for the year as cited earlier was 269; among them, the total number of males and females was 248 and 21, respectively. It’s important to remember that these are the cases that have been documented; nevertheless, many more cases have gone undocumented for a variety of reasons. The number of vehicles is also increasing with each passing day, which would likely create a situation be in the same league as Murree. People of Year-round, Gilgit-Baltistan is bereft of essentials, excluding everything.

The demand for must-have winter requisites, for instance, light and drinking water, is piffling. People use gas in their hotels and rooms to stay warm. Usage of gases in closed rooms contributed to situations like the death of a newlywed couple in their hotel room on October 29, 2021, due to gas suffocation in the Astore district of Gilgit-Baltistan and the three-year-ago death of newlyweds CSS officer and husband in their hotel room. A gas heater leak in their hotel room in Karimabad, Hunza’s central district, resulted in their deaths.

Citizens of Gilgit-Baltistan protested in Puniyal valley in Ghizer district against electricity outages, but the people were arrested on Anti-Terrorism charges. The first information report (FIR) was launched against Ahmed Cho Shigri, General Secretary, B.S.F. Senior Anjuman-e-Tajiran Skardu, and more protestants. People held rallies in solidarity with those against whom baseless FIR was registered under ATA. The FIR has been expelled because of the struggle of young minds, their resistance to oppressive rules. Renowned social activists and the student unions showed gregariousness, which denounces the governmental institutions, not to misbelief the power of ordinary but organized people. When push comes to shove, the government assures the people to consider their demands. The deprived people of GB are equally eligible to claim their rights via peaceful protests to convey their deemed demands to their elected leaders. Still, the threat of the 4th schedule under ATA 1997, which is only conventionally applied to them, stopped them from intoning slogans complaining about the benumbment of the leadership.

Despite a slew of issues, the people of GB are making the best of what they have. Girls ice hockey matches are one of a kind images they want to project in the Hunza region, where dignitaries such as Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gilmour Wendy served as a referee. On the other hand, government entities are busy filing FIRs against citizens who are simply exercising their rights.

Suppressed voices in Gilgit-Baltistan are now loud and will never be mute in the face of injustice. They are entitled to the same respect and consideration as the other provinces. The locals begin to question why winter demonstrations are linked with terrorism if winter sports are declared a soft image of Pakistan.