Expectations from the Elected and Selected Representatives of Kharmang
Wazir Khurram Ali Parvi
Election of Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) was held in November of 2020, with Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) emerging as a relatively successful party. They joined hands with a large number of independent candidates (who joined PTI) to form a government.
In district Kharmang, constituency GBLA-11, PTI contested the election in collaboration with Majlis Wadatul Muslimeen (MWM) and PTI candidate Syed Amjad Ali Zaidi emerged victorious. In GBLA-9, successful independent candidate Wazir Muhammad Saleem joined PTI.
According to an agreement, signed between PTI and MWM, Mr. Akbar Rajaei from MWM was selected as a technocrat while Kulsum Ilyas was selected for the women’s reserved seat. For the first time in history, district Kharmang got the honor of sending four representatives to GBLA.
The selected members have their own responsibilities and rights, but the two elected members are more responsible because they have considerable power in GBLA; one is speaker of GB Assembly (Syed Amjad Ali Zaidi) and the second, , Wazir Muhammad Saleem, is the Minister of Works Department. Needless to say that people of Kharmang have great expectations from these members to work on basic needs of the people, especially education, health, agriculture and forestry, mining, tourism, sports, and telecommunication.
In this write-up, I will further elaborate the expectations the people have from the representatives in the following sectors:
Education
Education is the backbone for the prosperity of any nation. People expect that members of GBLA Kharmang will work to provide quality education and overcome the shortage of teaching staff and the lack of infrastructures. According to the accessibility of students, there is a need to launch a project of more schools, Inter College for boys and girls, Boys and Girls degree colleges, and digital library in each union councils (UCs). Moreover, technical and vocational institutes via Kamyab Jawan program should also be established, while opening of a branch of Technical College Skardu, and a project of public school and college, should also be considered, while facilitating the private sectors.
We appreciate the Force Command Northern Area (FCNA) for starting the project of Army Public School in Kharmang; it will become a source of educational revolution in the district, just like the project of Cadet College Skardu. This project will help to overcome the load on government sector as well as it will help to fulfill the desire of those parents who want to admit their children in private institutes.
There is a mindset in our society that only private sector can provide better education and most of the parents desire to enroll their children in private institutions. For that reason they were compelled to migrate towards Skardu. This group of people even includes teaching staff of government schools and colleges; they are not willing to admit their children in government institutions because of poor quality of education. Therefore we expect our members to revolutionize the education system in the whole region to uplift the standards of quality education. A rule must be implemented so that every teacher must admit at least one of his child in any government institutions; this will have an impact on the teaching practices at the schools!
In the era of Pakistan people’s Party (PPP), the education department totally failed in fair selection of teaching staff in Kharmang. Corruption cases of education department became famous in GB. On the other hand, the government of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) played an important role in eradication of corruption in education department of GB. The credit goes to ex-education minister Ibrahim Sanai and in district Kharmang special credit goes to ex-information Minister of GB, Mr. Iqbal Hassan as they did not interfere in selection of the candidates. We hope that the current Government should not repeat the era of PPP and follow the policies of PML-N for the upcoming selection of Elementary School Teachers and Secondary School Teachers via Career Testing Service Pakistan (CTSP) or other vacant positions of education department in future.
Health
Health is one of the most important indicators of a society’s quality of life. While the world is faced with an unprecedented health crisis, in the form of CoVID-19, the weaknesses of public health systems across the world are being exposed every day. Millions have lost their lives, but the governments are failing to contain the impact. Had there been a more robust and efficient health system, including public awareness, the impact of the pandemic could have been contained.
In order to avert such disasters in the future, each GB district should have a robust public health system. Therefore, the representatives should work to functionalize the District Headquarter Hospital, overcome the need of doctors and nursing staff, up-grade dispensaries, and lunch a project of 100 Bed hospital in border areas, while also providing ambulances for UCs on the basis of population and accessibilities.
Administration of Kharmang has the opportunity to overcome the load on health department if they launch a project of Rescue 1122 in Kharmang this will be helpful to respond quickly in emergency situations, We have lost many lives on Skardu-Kargil road due to lack of quick response team of rescue as one example is the incident of Al Zahra college bus in 2014, if we had a functional rescue department in Kharmang then there was a chance to rescue more peoples.
Proper health facilities are not available in a Kharmang therefore people are compelling to travel Skardu this is not affordable for poor families so we hope our representatives in the current Government will resolve these serious issues.
Agriculture and Forestry
Agriculture and forestry is one of the major departments that increase the economy and living standards of the community in any region. As there are no vast areas in Kharmang district like district Shigar and Ghanche but many areas have capability to produce export quality fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately due to lack of interest of previous governments and water scarcity they failed to achieve their goals. Water scarce issue is the main problem for the farmers of Kharmang. Most population of the district are living across the site of Indus river but they did not get the opportunity from this water so there is a need to launch a small solar project in each village of Kharmang to lift water from the river Indus via IFAD (International fund for Agriculture development), Agriculture department GB or Clean and Green Pakistan project so this will help to overcome the needs of water. Therefore government should facilitate the alternative solutions to overcome this issue especially in march to April
Most areas face water insufficiency issues during March to April so to overcome this issue Ice stupa is one of the best solution. As the technique started in Saspolo village of Kharmang and they controlled the scarcity of water in some areas so if the government support a project in other areas the volunteer of Saspolo village are ready to share their experience which will help to fulfill the need of water especially during the months of March and April
People of Kharmang expects that the respected members will work to overcome the water scarcity issues, active the department to train farmers and fulfill the needs of a farmers to increase their economy via agriculture and forestry
Transportation
Transport sector is an important component of the economy and a common tools used for development so people of Kharmang expect that the respected members will start new projects in those areas where road facilities are not available, release funds for maintenance of existing infrastructure of transportation especially maintenance of Skardu-Kargil road because it is playing a key role in the development of Kharmang district as well as it has strategic role in defense of our country.
According to the importance of Skardu Kargil road people of Kharmang demand that current members should immediately start a project of Alternate road from Saspolo village to Kharmang border area via Saspolo RCC Bridge which connect saspolo village to Skardu-Kargil road this project is necessary for the continuation of transportation in district Kharmang that will helpful for the transportation companies to facilitate the people of Kharmang.
There are many private transportation companies working in Kharmang but they totally failed to facilitate the people. Therefore current members should invite Northern Areas transport co-corporation (NATCO) to start their services in Kharmang. In past, department of NATCO, Kharmang was the most revenue generating department, unfortunately due to the lack of interest of members, the department totally stopped their services. So there is need to restart daily service from Olding to Skardu and due the headquarter in Ghori it is far away from the people of the different area so the current government should have to start inter district service i.e. Olding to headquarter and Mehdiabad to headquarter which will facilitate the people of Kharmang.
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body or placer deposit. It is economically important to producing region and according to literature there are lots of mineral deposits present in Kharmang but there is a need to work for their proper extraction and training of people. In Kharmang few people are working on this sector but due to lack of knowledge and training they are totally failed to achieve their goals so it is the responsibility of our government to train the mining community with the collaboration of the mineral department of GB. If our members focus on this sector then this will produce many jobs to reduce unemployment and enhance the economy of Kharmang district.
Tourism
Tourism boosts the economy of any region. It provides jobs that will help to eradicate unemployment. It is necessary to focus on this sector as our Prime minister is also showing their interest to enhance tourism in northern areas especially in GB so our government should make policies to take maximum benefits and work to explore the historical and picnic place of Kharmang.
The exploration of these sites is not only the duty of our members it is the responsibility of the youth of Kharmang that they explore the beauty of Kharmang using print, electronic and social media which will helpful to attract tourist in district Kharmang
Sports
It is very essential for every human life which keeps them fit and fine physical strength. It has much importance in every stage of life. One of the main importance is the sports that keep our organ alert and heart become stronger by the regular playing of some kind of sports so according to the importance of sports current government should work to create an environment to facilitate different types of sports in Kharmang.
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the exchange of information over a long distance by using various types of technologies. In today’s digital world it has become the foundation for the business, government, communities and family to seamlessly connect and share information. In Kharmang the telecommunication system is not good as compared to other areas of GB so people hope that the members of Kharmang will work to maintain the existing networking company and they will facilitate other companies to start their service in district Kharmang which will helpful to increase the speed of the internet
If the current members get success to provide better internet service and training of the youth to earn money via freelancing then this will become a big development for eradication of unemployment rate in district Kharmang.
We hope that our respected members spend their Annual development project in all the areas of Kharmang without any discrimination which will be helpful to eradicate unemployment, enhance the economy and change the life of common people of Kharmang and inshallah the district will become the role model for other district of GB.
The contributor is a 3rd Semester student of MS RS&GIS at IST, Islamabad.
