PoK: Gilgit-Baltistan faces medical, infrastructural crisis due to administration’s ignorance

The Chunda village in the Skardu district of Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has a panoramic view of mountainsides and forests to die for. But the people are the ones who have to face the biggest drawback of the Pakistani administration’s inability to build infrastructure for the locals, as per a report by Skardu TV a local news channel from Gilgit Baltisatan.

The village locals today struggle to arrange their basic amenities for themselves as everything in this village is brought from cities. And because of the severe condition of the roads leading to the village, transportation becomes a matter of life and death.

Haji Nazaf Ali, a local from Chunda, said, “The biggest concern for us is the critical condition of the roads. As the things here need to be brought from cities all year long. The transporters don’t come to our village or impose high charges because of poor roads. And this gets worse during the snowfall of the winter season. And our political representatives continuously give us false promises and afterward, they forget our issues”.

While explaining the issue further, Ali mentioned, “Nothing except the small school building was built by the government in this village, and today that school building is also too old. Everything that you see here is built by us, with our efforts. The only people who had supported us belonged to several NGOs who had organized several things for us”.

“Having no medical facilities here is the worst for us in case of medical emergencies. We sometimes need to rush our people during serious cases like when pregnant women are about to deliver the child and other matters of medical emergencies,” he added in the Skardu TV report.

Another local tea stall owner from Chunda seconded the matter and said, “We need a doctor and an ambulance here, as we are left with no options even for small problems and diseases, but to go to big cities. Additionally, no women health workers have been arranged for our village, which causes us major problems”.

“We do not have any teachers for our kids, and the school that is in our village has been given the mere title of a high school. And no attention is being paid to this matter, which is ultimately creating several problems for us villagers. And other villages in the nearby villages have similar issues that remain ignored,” he added.