Chitral — The Lowari pass has always been a cause of problem for Chitralis. Hundreds of people have lost their lives to avalanches while trying to cross?it in the past. Now that the tunnel is being constructed it has become another world record holder?as the longest unfinished tunnel (in terms of time taken to build it).
The major issue in Chitral these days is the schedule of the tunnel opening per week. Every body is discussing it, in the shops, in the kotakay, in private sittings, in public gatherings, in ‘All parties’ meetings, this is the major issue and it seems Chitralis have no other issue but this.
The situation in?Chitral today resembles that?of Baghdad in 1258, when Halaku Khan sent a spy to report?the situation there so that he could assess the prospects of a victory in case of invading it. The?spy came back and reported that the main issue going on in Baghdad was whether an owl was kosher (halal) or not. The Khalifa had set up special committees of religious scholars and learned people?to debate it and everywhere the discussion was about this one issue. On hearing this, Halakoo ordered his troops to move towards Baghdad immediately without wasting time, and the rest is History.
In Chitral, the main issue today is who should get the credit for opening the tunnel two days a week instead of one. First it was about who announced it. Now it is about who made the notification be issued by NHA. What is this? What a shame! What an issue! If there is no Halaku today, there are personifications of Halaku?in their own right and stead, and doing just the same in the ways of the modern times. We blame the Halakus of today, but ourselves behave like the Baghdadians of 1258. — CN report, 14 Jan 2017
One thought on “Tunnel opening schedule becomes major issue in Chitral”
There was one Halaku Khan in 1258 but today. unfortunately, we have a number of Halakus in Federal Cabinet, in Provincial Cabinet, and in local government as well. The Tunnel Operators including NHA and the Korean Contractors are the most powerful owls who don’t care for any order of the government officials.
According to a personal source of information from Quetta, the Chineese have learnt a lot from Pakistanis in respect of corruption and evil doing. Similarly, the Koreans have also learnt a lot of things in terms of selfishness. Truely speaking, we are lacking philanthropists and policy makers in the government. We are at a loss to understand as to how the government business is run without any head and authority.