Tag Archives: Khunjerab

Pakistan

How Pakistan stole an Aussie’s heart

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By JOEL HILL

“Don’t go, comrade, they kill cricketers there!” This was the general reaction I received when I told people back home I was going to Pakistan.

They would also ask, “Why?”

I wasn’t entirely sure of the answer to that. All I knew was that when you get a chance to go somewhere that you otherwise would never be able to, you go.

There are some nutters that do it alone. They don’t speak the language and have this bizarre feeling of invulnerability. They come to Pakistan, hitchhike around in blissful ignorance of the possible dangers and almost always survive. I am envious of these people and definitely not one of them.

Luckily, I had a friend on the inside, Madeeha. She promised to show me the true side of Pakistan, and that is exactly what I saw from one entry point, Karachi all the way to the other, Khunjerab.

The warmth! The people are lovely, that’s just the way it is.

Nobody tried to rip me off, leer at me like I was an alien (well, there was some confusion initially) or generally appear threatening or nasty. People always wanted to say hello, offer us chai, have a photo taken and just chit chat.

Some would say, “Tell your friends back in Australia we are good people.” Which I have.

The pictures I took show breathtaking landscapes, glorious mountains and stunning lakes, but while my phone captured the vista, the people captured my heart.

Read more » DAWN
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Balochistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, Politics

Good news, bad news — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

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The establishment understands quite well that without turning Gwadar and large parts of Balochistan into a joint Chinese-Pakistani cantonment, they will not be able to move an inch

Passengers are relaxed in a cruising airliner all dreaming of their cherished destination and the pleasurable environment they would be in when suddenly the captain’s anxious voice breaks the calm. He says, “Ladies and gentlemen due to unavoidable circumstances a change of plans has been necessitated and we have been diverted to an uninhabited island. However, there is good news and bad news; which do you want first?” All demanded the bad news first. He said, “The bad news is that there is nothing to eat there except horse dung but the good news is that there is plenty of it.”

The situation in Pakistan is not much different; there are horse dung islands instead of promised destinations and, above all, the good news is always that there is more of bad news. There are unending atrocities against the Baloch, loot of their resources, injustices against Sindhis, carnages against Hazaras, intensification of attacks against Shias, discrimination against Hindus and Christians, persecution of Ahmadis, neglect of displaced persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Dera Bugti. The list is far from complete and the establishment continually not only adds to it but also increases the perniciousness of prevailing problems.

In the first five months of this year 84 people were disappeared, whereas 79 disfigured bodies were recovered from different parts of Balochistan; the toll of the dead is over 700. Whilst unabated atrocities, abductions and dumping of the Baloch persist, the establishment prepares to further antagonise them with the so-called economic projects essentially detrimental to Baloch interests because of the demographic changes and increased economic injustices these will entail and naturally be a prelude to increased state atrocities against them who naturally will resist to preserve their rights.

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