A sham investment moot
Weekly Baang Karachi Issue-13

(Editorial)

Some clever and opportunist Lahore-based traders in collusion with the dummy chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan got a so called 'international investment conference' organized in Skardu recently and also invited a number of Islamabad-based envoys to the event. There were a few speeches delivered and some discussions held when the conference was declared complete. Neither there was any declaration issued and nor the ambassadors had brought any investor from their respective countries. However, one thing was clear. The traders who had come from Lahore deliberated at length how to occupy the resources of the region. The dummy chief minister, who had been making tall claims about the success of the conference for long, even failed to get his own cabinet ministers attend the event.On the other hand, the traders from Lahore took full advantage of the chief minister's inexperience, lack of vision and education. By misleading the dummy chief minister, the office bearers of the Lahore chamber of commerce and industry took full benefits of the government resources of the region on the occasion. The irony was that none of the elected representative of Gilgit-Baltistan was invited to the conference. Besides, no local leader or even traders or economic experts from the region were asked to attend the event. In other terms, this was a conference completely out of the bounds for those even having rudimentary information about the region.Baang has always took notice of such issues and informed its readers that the so called leaders of the region have long been assisting their Islamabad based masters in looting and plundering the resources of the region. We had also informed the readers that the aim of the so called investment conference was not to bring any economic and financial benefit to the region but to help the Lahore traders in getting hands on our resources otherwise the moot had been organized and managed by the local authorities. Traders having interest in investment in the region would have been invited and a memorandum of understanding signed at the end.The fact of the matter is that the region of Gilgit-Baltistan is awaiting justice from the international community as far as its political status is concerned. This is the reason the two million people of the region seem trying to become masters of their own fate and save their resources from being plundered by others. The occupying forces have never made any step that could have ensured the economic well-being of the local populace. It is for sure that unless and until, the people of the region become politically independent, outsiders would never make any tangible steps to bring real development to the region. The aims of all such activities providing leisure and enjoyment to the outsiders have always been to keep the local residents deprived of the resources and take the benefits to the Islamabad based rulers. For this purpose, the rulers have always tried their best to strengthen their administrative control on the region and bring to forth those local elements who would be instrumental in achieving their objectives. These conscience less local elements have always deceived their voters in the name of democracy and danced to the tune of their masters sitting in Islamabad. History shows that these people have always become stumbling blocks in the way of getting independence and ensuring development and prosperity for the region.As a result, the region having abundance of human and natural resources has lagged behind in all spheres of development.It is time the dummy chief minister took stock of the situation and did not become a tool at the hands of outsiders hell bent on looting the resources of the region and keeping the people in the dark about their rights. The political leaders of the region and the media should come forward and expose all such elements working as agents of the outsiders forces otherwise it would be too late to safeguard the political, economic and constitutional rights of the people of the region.
Tajikistan road project
Gilgit-Baltistan is called the gateway of Pakistan because it shares boundaries with a number of countries like China, India, Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. Though there are roads links to connect with India and China but there has been no serious efforts to construct a road with the Central Asian states. In the past, especially during the tenure of Benazir Bhutto a number of surveys were conducted to construct a highway from Ishkoman in the Ghizer district toTajkistan and later during the days of Pervez Musharraf, serious efforts were made to materialize the project. However, soon some lobbies started their campaigns against the project and finally it was put into the cold storage. Now due to our follies it has been learnt that the highway would be started from Chitral and would be called Chitral-Tajikistan highway. This project will now cost the exchequer a whooping Rs10 billion rupees against Rs200 million had it been started from Ishkoman. Recently federal communication minister Arbab Alamgir Khan told a press conference in Gilgit that the reason behind abandoning the Ghizer-Tajikistan highway was lack of safety measures on this side, saying Chitral side was totally safe. He, however, did not mention what he meant by lack of safety in this side. Whether there are terrorists or criminals hiding in this side of the region. If the reason to abandon the project was safety concerns, then it is certainly a conspiracy against the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. This area has always been an embodiment of peace and tranquility and the minister by his remake has done a big disservice to the people of the region.Indeed it seems that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has successfully persuaded the federal government to give the gigantic project as a gift to the province depriving Gilgit-Baltistan of the benefits it could have achieved after the construction of the highway from its side. It also shows the incompetency, lack of vision and insincerity of our political leaders. They have once again exposed themselves that they are unable to safeguard the interest of the people of the region.
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