GILGIT BALTISTAN AND ITS MAJOR ISSUES
Gilgit
Baltistan known as the northern areas of Pakistan as an autonomous region which
constitute the huge portion of north Kashmir which has been the subject of
dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. This area is also known as the
area of mountains due to its highly mountainous regions and some of its highest
peaks including K2 and the main activities here are trekking and
mountaineering.
Although the
main beauty of this area is because of its mountains that attract the heart,
mind and soul of people towards it but the culture, tradition, history,
landmarks and people are also the main cause of attraction to the visitors.
This is the reason that why Gilgit Baltistan is considered as the capital of
tourism in Pakistan. Some of the heart terrific areas for the tourisms to visit
are DEOSAI, NALTER, FAIRY MEADOWS BAGOROTE VALLEY AND HUSHE VALLEY.
SHANGRILA LAKE SKARDU
As of 2021
there are 14 districts in
Gilgit Baltistan, 5 in Baltistan division, 5 in Gilgit division and 4 in Diamer
division. And these divisions are further divided into districts,
tehsils, councils and union councils. And the population of Gilgit Baltistan
according to the survey of 2013 are 1.249 and estimated to be 1.8 million by
Shahid Javed Burkhi in 2023.
As this area
was once the major center for Buddhism and was an important road of an ancient
silk road and todays due to its geographical position it plays a major role in
junction of China, India as well as the Pakistani cities of Skardu, Chitral,
Peshawar and Islamabad through Karakoram highway.
Although
Gilgit Baltistan are one of the important regions of Pakistan but we cannot
deny the fact that it is the most neglected region of Pakistan. This area can
undergo a dramatic change if the government will show some interest towards it.
GB is considered as one of richest areas in terms of diversified skills.
However, this area only requires the nourishment and empowerment of these
skills. Like this area is one of the richest region in terms of language
diversities. Almost 9 or more languages are spoken in this region and each
person can almost speak about 4-5 languages which can be a great interesting
area of research for linguistic scholars.
This area
only requires the opportunities to enhance and polish their skills and this
comes under the umbrella of our government sectors.
As this
region is badly struggling for its basic life enmities such as education,
water, internet facilities, and healthcare issues.
In these
issues listed above one of the main issue that is emerging rapidly are the
healthcare issues. As good health is the basic right of every person but the
residents of Gilgit Baltistan are struggling to ensure their health problems.
Protest in GB against
light, health and education but these neglections still did not come to an end
In this area only the
serious diseases that must need a medical treatment are treated here. Otherwise
health negligence are too much common here even the psychiatric issues are
overall under treated. The prevalence of mental disorders are unchecked which
results that GB are in the top regions of Pakistan where the cases of suicides
are increasing day by day and majorly the Ghizer side of GB. Due to these
negligence GB is struggling from lots of health care issues. The mortality rate
of mothers during the delivery of babies are at its peak. On other hands still
births of babies are also in major concern. In addition to this mul–nutrition
related diseases are also on its peak which may include under nourishment and
over nourishment of the people and this ultimately lead to the chronic diseases
like high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, hypertension etc. As these are the
main issues that the residents of Gilgit Baltistan are suffering from. The main
causes of these issues can may be the
negligence of government, neglence of people towards their health, and the lack
of facilities like innovative health care hospitals. As there are only six
hospitals in the overall Gilgit region that are providing the health care
facilities and the people live in rural areas have to struggle a lot when any
kind of health problem have been diagnosed even some deaths occur on the way
towards hospitals. Hospitals are in lack of standard and modernized health care
equipment even the hospitals waste management policy is almost
non-existence. In addition to this there
is a lack of doctors and crises of lady health visitors and lady health workers
that ensure the health of maternal and child health at the grass route level.
All these issues can ultimately lead to the worst health conditions in GB.
Protest of doctors and people against bad conditions of
hospitals
The second main problem after health that GB is facing are the lack of hygienic water. The availability of drinking clean and safe water are now a challenge for the residents of GB. Here in major areas the drinking water are under ground and channel water which are highly contaminated with E.coli and are rich in minerals and vitamins that can not be easily removed through the heating treatment. Drinking of this water ultimately lead to many health related problems including H. pylori. Out of 10% people 6% of the people in GB are suffering from this issue.
The next
major problem that GB is facing is unemployment.
People are classified unemployed if they do not have a job. Unemployment is the problem that gives birth to many other huge problems in a society. people of this region are struggling for government jobs because the opportunities in this area are very low. People have skills and capabilities but due to lack of opportunities they can not polish their skills. As the concept of industries and factories are very low even the government factories and industries are very few that gives job to limited people. And due to lack of these facilities this region is too much under developed.
The main
conclusion of this article is that as GB is one of the beautiful regions in
Pakistan having lots of talent in it. If this talent are fully appreciated and
gives opportunities to it than it can under go through dramatic changes and
play its beneficial role for the contribution of the country benefits.
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