Residents of Haramosh threaten to besiege CM office

Criticise ruling party leaders for neglecting their area.

GILGIT:

A local activist of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday threatened to besiege the chief minister house if immediate attention was not paid to issues of his area.

“The government is apathetic towards issues of our area,” PML-N Haramosh valley leader Capt (retd) Mohammad Shafi told reporters at the Gilgit Press Club on Thursday. “We will lay siege to the chief minister house on June 10 if our voice is not heard,” he said.

He said that Haramosh valley comprising a dozen villages is the most backward area as it has been neglected by authorities. He said that a small bridge connecting a farflung village of Haramosh with rest of the region collapsed seven years ago and still remains unrepaired causing great difficulties to the people.

Recently, he claimed, two pregnant women of the area died en route to district headquarters hospital because of lack of access to health facilities in their area. He accused the local representative from the area for his ineptness and apathy. “The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders from the constituency (GBLA-3) are corrupt and inept and are only interested in favouring their near and dear ones,” he added.

The poor people of the valley were affected by the last year’s floods. “The floods dealt a death blow to the valley depriving the poor people of their crops, livestock and fruits but what is painful is that no one turned up for their assistance,” said the politician.

Accompanied by over 50 supporters, Shafi came down hard on the PPP government for ignoring their concerns. He said that he has seen a copy of the PC-1 wherein only Rs218 million has been allocated for the valley, fearing that most of the allocated money will go to the pockets of the concerned officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2011.