Life on the margins

Chitral is an area of sublime natural beauty but underdeveloped, poorly invested in and lacks political muscle

There are parts of Pakistan that are invariably spoken of with pride and affection, lauded for their beauty and peacefulness, their culture an exemplar. Chitral is one of them. The area is of sublime natural beauty but is at the same time, underdeveloped, poorly invested in and lacks political muscle. Thus it is that when disaster strikes, as it has in Chitral, help is far away. In October 2015, Chitral was struck by an earthquake that measured 7.6 on Richter scale, 33 people died and 19,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Winter has been and gone and now, seven months after the earthquake, 450 families of the village of Darosh have been protesting in Chitral town for a seventh consecutive day, wanting to know where and when relief is going to arrive.



The villagers are claiming that the Deputy Commissioner, Osama Ahmed Warraich, has failed to honour an agreement to negotiate with them. One wonders what there is to negotiate about. They are undeniably victims of a natural disaster, their claims are valid enough, their houses really are destroyed. At the primary level, the first responder is the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. It states that it has released Rs16.6 billion for those affected by the earthquake and it is the Chitral district administration that has failed to utilise and disburse the funds appropriately.

The protesting Chitralis are so angry that they have considered decamping to Afghanistan but were stopped on the road by the Chitral Scouts and that is where they still sit, inclement weather notwithstanding. They are poor, powerless, many homeless and off the radar as far as most of the rest of Pakistan is concerned. Far away and small enough not to be concerned about. The prime minister is not about to show up and wave a magic wand. Nor is the provincial governor. Relief may eventually arrive for these benighted people and their lives and livelihoods gradually be pieced together, but life on the margins of the state in Pakistan is never going to be easy. Pretty Chitral may certainly be — and pretty easy to ignore. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.