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No room for sympathy with usurpers
By Dj Mathal
Natural disasters are common in Gilgit-Baltistan. In winter the area is usually hit by rains and snowfall while in summer flooding in rivers and streams brings miseries to the people, causing losses of lives and destruction to properties. These calamities subside with the passage of times but they leave behind their scars on the local populace who without any government help for rehabilitation continue to suffer for the remaining parts of their lives. Though there exists a form of local administration in Gilgit-Baltistan but this unfortunate land remains deprived of basic facilities even in the 21st century.
Take for example the case of any city in Pakistan. If there arises a danger of flooding in Nulla Lai in Rawalpindi, the government swings into action to clean its passageway and relocate the people on its banks by spending millions of rupees.. Besides, public representatives of the affected people raise a hue and cry in their respective assemblies to pay compensation to the affected people.. But when the people of Gilgit-Baltistan become victims of vagaries of nature, killed by avalanches, their areas are blocked for months and the residents are stranded, when there is shortage of life-saving drugs and food items due to blockade of roads, there is no one to come to their rescue. Non-local government officials pass the bug by saying that they are unable to resolve the problems on the face of natural calamities which are common in the region.
The affected families, as a result, live the life of refugees sometime moving away from their houses and sometime returning to their destroyed homes only to find that their properties like orchards and cattle and other valuables are no more. In such a situation, there is no department to help the people affected by natural calamities neither there is any relief fund to assist the people in an emergency situation.
Poverty and unemployment have reached their zenith in Gilgit-Baltistan. There are no avenues to give jobs to the unemployed youth. Agricultural landholding has shrunk leaving very little for the farmers to grow crops on. Business opportunities are also not friendly. For the last over 60 years, the local population has got nothing to improve their life standard. The non-local bureaucracy posted in the region has nothing to do with the welfare of the people. They have only concerns with their jobs and the commissionthey get. These people come to the region with only one aim in their minds "“ Earn money as much as you can "“ like people going to other countries in search of lucrative jobs. The hordes of NGOs engaged in the region work on those projects only which gave them good monetary returns. The structure of political parties is so weak that they are unable to perform welfare work in the region. All this shows that there is no one in Gilgit-Baltistan to whom the people can look for help. We have even never heard political leaders seriously taking up the issues of the affected people of natural calamities. In such a situation the nation is compelled to think that how can they live under a system which has utterly failed to provide them relief in times of need. Such a situation has always promoted the sense of nationalism, as no one can become a silent spectator to the miseries of their brothers/sisters. The case of Darkot people is one such example. The record snowfall and trains shattered the lives of the residents but the authorities have given a deaf ear to their miseries. In such a situation the rising demand for a separate state is understandable. It is true that only the sons of the soil have the desire to do something for their land and for this ridding of non-locals is a prerequisite. The residents deprived of their basic rights for the last 61 years raise the question that for how long they will be suffering destruction and deprivation under Pakistani rule.. There is no room for further loyalty with the usurpers.
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