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CHITRAL NEWS
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Postcard from Chitral
The News
by Chris Cork
Peshawar was
tense. There was not a western face to be seen on the streets, the hotel was
almost empty and nobody was under any illusions as to the possible threat we
worked under; and there was a palpable sense of relief as we lifted off in
the dawn light for Chitral. The cabin crew was on light duties as there were
only ten passengers, the flight was as beautiful as it ever was and on
arrival Chitral airstrip – never busy - was a hotbed of lethargy. We
disembarked into a sparkling morning to breathe clean air and felt the sense
of insecurity falling away from us. Smiling faces, jeeps, luggage in the
back, laughing and joking with old friends, it was good to back among the
mountains again.
We were here to scope out possible health and education projects that the
Abaseen Foundation, an organization I have worked with for several years may
have a future involvement with. Projects which had been planned for the
Peshawar and FATA areas were on hold, and we needed to look for a safe place
to work. Chitral, cut off for much of the year by road, almost completely
untouched by the turmoil that rages across other parts of NWFP, with an
established governmental and NGO infrastructure that was in reasonable
shape, looked like a good place to do business. It is.
There may be no fighting or school burning or threats to CD and video shops
or female community workers, but the troubles have touched Chitral. For
forty years or more it has been a hub for mountain tourism in Pakistan – now
withered to a shadow of what it was. The hotel and trekking and porterage
firms had contributed to the economy of what still feels like a mini-state,
and they have all felt the winds of war. Tourists thronged the bazaar on my
last visit twelve years ago – today there is our small party and a
sprinkling of other westerners. There was a traffic problem that was not
here a decade ago as well – hundreds of illegal vehicles that have come over
from Afghanistan choke the narrow roads. The knick-knack and souvenir shops
have thin pickings these days and beseech our custom, their prices lowered
to make a sale – any sale.
By late afternoon and after a hectic day our host had settled us into an
idyllic location. We are at 4,942 feet and on the site of the old fort of
Ayun. There are lawns and shady trees, rivulets and flowers, a sense of
peace and a place where the emotional batteries can get recharged for a few
days - along with a little light trekking, the possibility of some polo on
the morrow and visits to local health and education projects.
Sitting on the verandah last night the village was a sprinkling of
lightpoints on the mountainside. The electricity is provided by a
mini-hydroelectric unit installed by a member of the princely family that
once ruled here, and still casts a benevolent eye over the land and its
people. There are no meters; people pay a flat rate per light-bulb. No
load-shedding either. We talked of times past, but mostly we talked of times
future, of the time when the new tunnel, soon to be opened, is going to
bring its own changes to the way life is lived here. It has obvious
benefits, not the least of them being an all-weather link to the rest of the
world. The down-side, and a fear expressed by many, is that it could provide
a route for the extremists to gain a foothold in this place, something they
have hitherto not done.
Chitral is now almost an anachronism. A place that has managed to avoid the
fear and terror that has touched so much else here Come and see for
yourselves how most of Pakistan used to be – and could be again. Although
much work is yet to be done we have tentatively identified a pair of health
projects where we may be able to partner with the government and a local NGO
and I will be happy to come and monitor their progress. And Peshawar?
Hmmm…perhaps not.
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