Chitral needs an all-weather route

DAWN February 17, 2002
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COMMENT
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By Zar Alam Khan Rizakhail

WITH the approach of winter every year, people in Chitral consider it
a part of their fate to endure innumerable communication-related problems,
for almost half of the year cut off completely from the outside world because
of the closure of Lowari Pass, which links the valley with other parts of the
country.
The 14,850-square-kilometre valley of Chitral, with a population of
over 330,000, is accessible by road only through its two high-altitude hilly
passes -- Lowari Pass at the height of 10,500 feet in the south of the
district and the 12,400-foot-high Shandur Pass on its northeast. From
December-end to May communication to and from the district becomes restricted
to the PIA air service, that too depending on weather.
For the last about 10 years, the people have been using a highly
dilapidated unmetalled road through the Kunar province of Afghanistan
for reaching Peshawar via the Nawa Pass. But because of the changed
situation in the neighbouring country, the Kunar-Nawa pass road has also
been closed this year and the Chitral Scouts have sealed the border near
Arandu after the closure of Lowari Pass.
And to rub salt into the wounds, the PIA with the onset of winter this
year has announced that it will give its Peshawar-Chitral-Peshawar route to
the private sector on contract to, what the airline said, lessen its financial
loses. The decision has created resentment in the valley, where people term
the decision irresponsible and say that at a time when the area is
confronted with innumerable communication-related problems, the act of the
national flag-carrier would further multiply their miseries and create unrest
in the area.
Talking to Dawn on telephones from Chitral they urged President Pervez
Musharraf to intervene in the matter as it would totally cripple the
already haggard communication system of the area, particularly
in the winter when the people solely become dependent on air travel.
The regional office of the PIA in Peshawar has decided to abolish its
services to Saidu Sharif, Parachinar, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, besides
giving the Peshawar-Chitral route to the private sector.
The local people fear that the decision will hit them hard as the
private party will increase fares and resort to black marketing of the
tickets in winter, besides mismanaging the whole affairs. They recall the
22 years of agony which they gone through between 1965 and 1987
when the PIA air ticketing, cargo handling, etc., were in the hand of a
local private organization.
But when contacted, PIA General Manager S.M.Imran Gardezi expressed
his ignorance about the reports which had originated in Peshawar.
"No such decision has been taken at all, and I categorically
contradict the report," he said, adding that normal flight schedules,
however, could be changed according to the requirements but as far as
the question of privatization was concerned it is a long process and
it is not possible that one route of the airline could be given to
the private sector.
When the PIA had not opened its sales office in Chitral, all
the ticketing, cargo handling, etc., were in the hand of a local
private organization from 1965 to 1987. The people were angry
because of rampant mismanagement, nepotism
and black marketing of tickets during the period, which led to
frequent protest demonstrations in the area. The situation had so
deteriorated that the matter was taken up at the National Assembly
which passed two resolutions, asking the PIA to establish its own
office in Chitral to mitigate the sufferings of the people.
Subsequently, the PIA district sales office was opened in the
district in 1987.
The district should not be treated at par with other parts of
the country where road facilities are available round-the-year
whereas Chitral remained completely cut off from the rest of the
country in the winter, Chitral tehsil Nazim Amir Khan Mir said.
"The decision of the PIA, reportedly taken because of financial
loss, is ridiculous," Chitral Welfare Association's general
secretary Advocate Sam Saam Ali Khan said, adding that it was the
alleged corruption among the high-ups which had drained the resources
of the organization.
A resident of Ovirik village in Garamchamshma, Mohammad Afzal,
said: "We live in the 21st century, the age of motorways, but it is
disappointing that people in Chitral still remain imprisoned for
half of the year in the valley and the government has failed to
mitigate their sufferings."
The decision would affect the people, particularly those living
in the far-flung villages of the valley. The government should bear
the losses, if any, and provide better air travel facilities to the
people in winter until an all-weather route is constructed linking
the area with other parts of the country, a local trader said.
About the unending communication-related problems of the
district, District Nazim Shahzada Mohiuddin told Dawn that he
had recently taken up the issues with President Pervez
Musharraf, NWFP governor and the corps commander of Peshawar. He
said the army's district supporting team had also assured him that
C-130 planes and helicopters services from Peshawar to
Chitral would be operated after the closure of the Lowari Pass,
besides the normal 14 flights a week Fokker service to the district.
He said the provincial government should take steps keeping in view the
peculiar geography-related problems of the area.
It has been a longstanding demand of the people of Chitral to
the successive governments to construct an all-weather road to
the valley. In the early 1970s, the first PPP government had
sanctioned the Lowari tunnel project, work on which was started
in 1975 from the Gujar post in the Dir district at an elevation of
7,880 feet.
During 1976-77, the Frontier Works Organization had completed
about 2,000-foot of digging work on the tunnel from the southern
side in collaboration with the Lowari Tunnel Organization.
The then coalition government of Maulana Mufti Mahmood and
Abdul Wali Khan in the Frontier being at loggerheads with
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the project soon fell prey to their
political discord. Subsequently, work on the site was abandoned
after spending millions of rupees.
With the passage of time, the estimated cost of the project
has gone up. In 1994, the National Assembly was informed that the
cost of the project -- according to the National Highway
Authority's estimate -- had touched a three-billion-rupee mark
from Rs500 million in 1975. Since then the project has remained in
cold storage.
Keeping in view the hardships of the area, President Pervez
Musharraf, at the conclusion of the Shandur polo tournament in
June last, had promised the people that work on the project would
start in 2002. Earlier, on April 27, 2001, NWFP Governor
Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had asked a foreign-funded NGO and
the European Union to help in the phase-wise construction of the
tunnel.
Despite all these promises and assurances there seem no prospects
of solution to the imbroglio.