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Why negative thinking ? -letter4

13 June 09.

Why negative thinking ? -letter3

I agree with our sister Ms Fatima (student in Islamabad) that the flight Islamabad-Chitral does have numerous merits for the people of Chitral and I am not going to count them again and again. I give you only one example for reference to Mr Zahiruddin's point that there are no passengers on this flight. We have got our schools closed for summer vacation and we  eagerly want to travel to Chitral but we are unable to reserve seats before 19th July. That's the real situation on ground. I request the writer to please note this and find some other subject to discuss.

Zahid Abbas;

Student of class VII
Islamabad Academy School, Islamabad.

12 June 09.

Why negative thinking ? -letter2

In these columns the other day, Ms Fatima Bibi has enumerated the positive sides of Islamabad-Chitral air service and has tried her level best to prove that the direct flight from Islamabad is all blessing for Chitralis. Being the opponent of the flight, I would like to put forward the following points:

1. We are not against Islamabad-Chitral flight but we want it to be operated via Peshawar.

2. It is a fact that the aircraft flies to Chitral with most of the seats unoccupied which inflicts loss on the national flag carrier on one hand the passengers in Peshawar are affected.

3. More than ninety percent of Chitralis are concentrated in Peshawar and there used to be three flights daily from Peshawar to accommodate the swelling number of passengers.

4. The Chitralis residing in Peshawar can not avail the flight from Islamabad because first they will go to Islamabad and then fly from there which will increase their expenses three fold.

5. In Peshawar, the passengers reside in hotels which is well within their reach or put up with their relatives but in Islamabad, the hotel expenses are too exorbitant to be afforded by a common man.

6. The people with moderate income (constituting more than 90 percent of Chitralis in the twin cities) prefer to travel to Peshawar by road and then fly to Chitral just for the sake of curtailing their expenses.

7. It is also a fact that the Islamabad-Chitral has been introduced at the cost of one flight in Peshawar-Chitral sector.

8. The number of persons availing the Islamabad-Chitral is very limited belonging to the affluent class of Chitral who can be counted on fingers.

9. The weather in Chitral remains air-worthy in the morning and the clouds develops later on and the Peshawar-Chitral flights are cancelled frequently. During the first week of June, six flights were operated from Islamabad while only one could be flown from Peshawar.

10. Postal system in Chitral has collapsed because the postal consignment is dispatched from Peshawar and not from Islamabad. The problem can be solved if the flight is operated via Peshawar as it will pick the postal consignments.

Zahiruddin,
'Dawn' correspondent, Chitral.

10 June 09.

Why negative thinking ? -letter

This is with reference to some of our friends demand in a newspaper that PIA flights must close it's operations from Islamabad. Our question is WHY?

Why are we not demanding more flights from Peshawar instead? Is it a solution that they  close the flight from Islamabad-Chitral and move to Peshawar? No and never. There are certain reasons and benefits of the flight from Islamabad to Chitral.

1. In past there were four to five flights for Chitral every day; I remember there was one flight in the name of extra flight for Chitral at 5 am, why we are not demanding even for that flight again. Where is the leadership, what the party people are doing? Is their job fighting or transferring their children to foreign posting. We are thankful to those who fought for and got us this flight, and we can say this is our emergency exit flight, we cannot accept to close this flight from Islamabad in any way.

2. Given the volatile conditions in NWFP, people find Rawalpindi relatively safer than Peshawar. Islamabad-Chitral flights are running at full capacity and are now more in demand than Peshawar-Chitral flights. So how do we justify demand for it's stoppage.

3. According to the census more Chitralis are working/studying in Rawalpindi/Islamabad alone than in Peshawar. Not counting those in Lahore, Karachi and other cities for whom it is more convenient to fly to Chitral from Islamabad than Peshawar.  Earlier these kinds of rumors were being propagated by our neighbors (NA people) who are working in PIA that the Islamabad–Chitral flight is not profitable, to discontinue the flight and divert tourists to their area. Now some of our own new journalists are (knowingly or unknowingly) doing this job- WHY?

4. Chitrali businessmen and young generation have to take initiative and operate businesses, hotels and transport system form Rawalpindi to Chitral also instead of getting fixed on Peshawar alone.

5. If Dir, Timergira road opens why the Adda and transporters are not going to Rawalpindi or Islamabad. The hotels in Rawalpindi are safer, I think they can find the same rate hotels there even better and road distance is similar due to the motor way. There possibly better transport will be available, they cannot treat the Chitralis like what the Peshawar and Dir people are doing with them traditionally.

6. This flight is the only way to attract tourist which is possibly one of the big opportunity for Chitral in future.

Finally, the conclusion is that we can demand more flights from Peshawar, but we don’t have to demand to discontinue the flight between Chitral–Islamabad. I can request our young journalist brothers not to propagate the negative news about Chitral, because we are peace loving people always demand anything for Chitral in a positive way.

Fatima Bibi,

Drosh, (studying in Islamabad)

01 Jun 09.

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