Thursday, March 28, 2024
 
 News Details
Who cares about the environment in Gilgit-Baltistan?




By Allabaksh



It is a bit ironic that Pak Army Chief General Raheel Sharif should be accusing India of trying to sabotage the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at a time when the people of Gilgit-Baltistan are faced with the brunt of torrential rains and floods resulting in the complete breakdown of road networks and civic facilities in the area. More than a 100 people have died and many thousands have been displaced due to the flooding and landslides that have affected this mountainous region.

Chief Minister Mehdi Shah of Gilgit-Baltistan said that the area had been cut off from rest of the country for the last one month as the Karakoram Highway (KKH) had been totally damaged. How can we believe Gen. Raheel Sharif who says India is sabotaging the CPEC when Pakistan’s own development plans have caused havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan? Nature has played truant and rains and floods have disrupted the KKH. The CPEC’s main transport grid is the KKH.
CM Mehdi Shah said that he had requested the federal government to provide Rs 10 billion for the rehabilitation and compensation of the affected people. Fuel and essential commodities had been running out of stock in the region and the government was supplying it through Kaghan-Naran road. He claimed that the entire government machinery had been mobilised to streamline the relief and rehabilitation activities and restore electricity and water supply, which had broken down in the wake of the torrential rains and floods.
The KKH was opened to traffic in 1979. Over 810 Pakistanis and 200 Chinese workers lost their lives, mostly in landslides and slipping/falling, while building the highway. Chinese workers, who had lost their lives during construction work, were buried at the Chinese cemetery in Gilgit. The KKH has had many major landslides in the past, the last major one occurring in January 2010, when a massive landslide 15 kms upstream from Hunza's capital of Karimabad created the Attabad Lake. The landslide closed the KKH in the Hunza Valley and destroyed several villages killing many people. The Attabad lake displaced thousands and inundated over 20 kms of the KKH including the 310 metres (1,020 ft) long KKH bridge 4 kms south of Gulmit.


Notably, the KKH forms the main hub of the CPEC from Kashgar to Gwadar and the recent torrential rains have demonstrated how fragile the eco system of the area is. Therefore, to expect that the CPEC will have smooth going through the territory needs a re-think. Gen. Sharif made remarks blaming India for trying to block the CPEC at a seminar on Gwadar even as rains were lashing Gilgit Baltistan. On top of that the army chief used the occasion to accuse the India’s external intelligence agency RAW of fomenting destabilisation of Pakistan. Thus, Raheel Sharif has once again taken recourse to deception to blame India for the ills that Pakistan faces. Strange are the ways of Pakistani army chief’s who have constantly since independence chosen to target India for their own follies.


Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, has accused India of “openly challenging” the CPEC and made special reference to RAW being ‘blatantly involved’ in destabilising Pakistan. Gen. Sharif, what about the ISI and MI destabilising Balochistan over the last 40 years? What about the forced disappearances that have led to worldwide condemnation of human rights violations in Balochistan? Well, the Pak Army Chief has high hopes that the CPEC will become operational soon; it will happen if the entire Pak Army gets involved in construction of the road and rail network. Fair enough, if organizations like Fauji Foundation and AWT want to make more money! Sharif claimed the first cargo shipment from China would reach the Gwadar deep seaport this year.


While the security of the CPEC is to be ensured by a 15,000-strong force under the ambit of a special security division in the Pak Army the question who is going to protect the environment? In October 2015, in a letter written to Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, Ryszard Czarnecki, Vice President, European Parliament highlighted his concerns about the Chinese Investment Projects in Gilgit-Baltistan, flouting environmental norms. He noted that China was involved in the construction of large-scale dams, telecommunication development and mining activities in Gilgit-Baltistan. China was also constructing highways and railroad systems between Xinjiang and the port cities of Karachiand Gwadar through Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.


Czarnecki observed that “many such projects have led to increased insecurity and confrontations between Chinese developers and the locals in Gilgit-Baltistan.” There is a lot of resentment among locals in the region of Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan Administered Kashmir over the perceived negative environmental impact, notes the EU Vice President. The companies assigned the job of managing and operating these heavy investment projects have not been tasked by the government to take care of environmental concerns. As part of the work, most goods are transported using vehicles that cause air pollution, and a huge human health cost has been incurred as a result of this project. The noise generated by machinery during construction of the project, and by vehicles responsible for transporting goods, is also a potential nuisance for people residing in the region. Significantly, Czarnecki observed that locals had protested many times, but the Government of Pakistan had turned a ‘deaf ear to their voices’ and arrested the activists. It is in this context that Czarnecki urged the European Parliament to urgently look into the concerns of the citizens of Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan Administered Kashmir. So at the end of the day, who will the people of Gilgit-Baltistan believe, mother nature or Gen. Raheel Sharif? Perhaps a referendum on the issue will bring to light Pakistan’s complete and abject neglect of Gilgit-Baltistan since 1947!







(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir)



(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)



Editor
Scoop News,(scoopnews.in)
...
Share this Story
 
 
  Comment On this Story
 
 
 Back Issuesk Issues
If you are looking for Issues beyond today. You can simply use this calendar tool to view Issue of Scoop News for any particular Date.
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Scoop News, Jammu Kashmirr
Home || About Us || Advertise With Us || Disclaimer || Contact Us
Powered by Web Design Jammu