Thursday, April 28, 2011

Society should discourage rising suicide trend: seminar

Report Zahiruddin

CHITRAL, April 26, 2011: Speakers at a seminar here on Monday asked the society to utilize all social tools to discourage the rising trend of suicide, especially among girls, in Chitral while government should also play its defined role in this connection.

Jointly held by Chitral Press Club and Regional Women Empowerment Project (RWEP) of AKRSP, the theme of the seminar was ‘to ascertain the reasons of suicide among youth and measures to check it’. The members of civil society organizations, religious leaders, academicians and activists of development sector attended the seminar in large number.

The speakers said the frequency of the incidents to commit suicide had gone to a horrendous level in the area and the issue must be tackled on a war footing and the attention of the whole society must be diverted towards it.

They noted that not a single or a few reasons can be cited for the issue but it is multi-faceted and is a complex whole and many factors combine together to lead the young segment of the society to the incidents.

They said many of the young girls commit suicide when they failed to negotiate themselves with the circumstances which are imposed on them against their will because of the prevailing trend that the decision regarding the weaker sex of the society is made by the male.

The speakers also noted that the local society is undergoing the period of transition and the youth folk often find themselves far behind the designated position and this leads them to distortion and deviation from the normal path.

They pointed out the lack of the facilities of psychotherapy in the district headquarters hospital and said that a large number of affected people can be treated and normalize their life routine.

The speakers eulogized the efforts of RWEP for its efforts to ascertain the reasons of suicides in Chitral and raising awareness among the people.

Those who read out their papers included Dr. Inayatullah Faizi, Dr. Gulzar Ahmed, Niaz A Niazi Advocate, Maulana Habibullah and Khateeb Khaliquz Zaman.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

PM promises timely provision of funds for Lowari Tunnel

ISLAMABAD, April 26, 2011: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said that timely completion of Lowari Tunnel project will not only bring great relief for the people of Chitral by reducing distance but also provide them access to other parts of the country in all weathers.

He directed the concerned authorities for timely provision of funds for the Lowari Tunnel project so that this project of national importance could be completed soon.

The Prime Minister was talking to Shahzada Mohiuddin, MNA, who called on him here at his Parliament House Chamber on Monday evening.

The Prime Minister said projects like provision of clean drinking water for the masses, the sewerage system, and the basic health facilities have been undertaken by the government in collaboration with NGOs for the welfare of the people of Chitral.

Shahzada Mohiuddin thanked the Prime Minister for his personal interest for the uplift of the area.

He informed the Prime Minister about the ongoing development projects in his area. He also apprised about various problems being faced by the people in Chitral.--APP

Meanwhile, talking to chitraltoday.com here, the MNA said some people, especially the Jamaat-i-Islami Chitral representatives have started propaganda about diversion of Lowari Tunnel funds to Multan and Larkana and were creating confusion among the people of Chitral for their vested interest. He claimed that work on the project was continuing and the project would be completed on time.

He said the prime minister had also promised to release the Rs300 million he had promised to each of the seven PML-Q MNAs, including himself, who were supporting the PPP government.

Chitral’s immense hydel potential

Basic essential requirements for producing hydel energy are water plus fall. The higher the fall the more the water, the higher the energy produced. In a mountainous terrain like Chitral with plenty of fast flowing waters, higher and higher falls can be derived by building gravity flow channels.

The same formula applied in the plains would require building huge dams at tremendous costs then these dams getting silted up in due course of time. Where Chitral is concerned a safe estimate is that at least twenty large hydel projects if not many many more can be set up on falls from gravity flow channels from the mini rivers of the side valleys.

Similarly, several small dams can be built at a number of special sites on the main river wherever the very narrow gorges make such dams feasible, producing as much energy as large ones in the plains. Unlike the dams in the plains the collection of water in these dams would hardly submerge any cultivable lands. Thus according to this claims of this scribe the immense hydel potential of Chitral has a capacity to provide energy to the whole of Pakistan and Afganistan if not more.

Even if one calls it a day dream what harm by one more vision with so many aspirations gone bitter, stinking and becoming unpalatable. so while hoping against hope one is reminded by one of Allama Iqbal’s verses Nawaayae aafereen seenayae khaesh, bahaarae nee tuwaan kardan kharaan raa...... so half a century of our precious by gone life demands that the long neglected development of Chitral be handed over to WB for the next fifty years.

Development plan should among others also include highways to central Asia over the Durah and Boroghil passes and development of Kagh Lasht as an international airport, a modern university with foreign scholarships and a full fledged hospital in Chitral proper. With Chitral’s immense hydel potential and its iron and other mineral ores there is a fare chance of not one poor family remaining in Chitral.

The British had introduced electricity in Chitral on a small scale when there were no hydro electricity in many areas of the frontier province. One sikh, Ram singh was the head operator.

Again Lowari is no enigma with what wonders science and technology have produced and developed during the last one and half century.'' Sitarrown sea aagae jehaan our bhi hean''. so why on earth should the lowari be such a perplexing and bedevilling problem? Decades ago during the 1970 elections and through the papers this scribe ad advocated the idea of a cable car way over the lowari. When the mode is in existence else here, and even in Pakistan then for the Quid’s and Islamabad,s sake why not a cable car way over the Lowari? No! The fault dear Qashqaries is not in our stars, the flaw is definitely more so in you and me and in our cuisses and Brutus's.



KA Mulk

Chitral (April 26, 2011).

Thursday, April 21, 2011

'Chitralis' hospitality impressed Markhor hunters'

PESHAWAR, April 21, 2011: Foreigners from US and Russia hunted three Markhors – two in Chitral and one in Kohistan - and returned to their homelands carrying along the attractive trophies and good memories of hospitality of the local people.

“One of the three hunters was an octogenarian,” said Chief Conservator Wildlife Department Saeeduz Zaman Siddique.

The chief conservator said the expedition of these foreign hunters was very successful from all aspects and they returned home much satisfied with the hospitality and friendly behaviour of people of the areas.

“We were concerned about the safety and security of foreign hunters and fortunately nothing untoward happened during their stay,” he said and added in fact the attitude of locals with the visiting hunters was very cordial and encouraging.

Giving details about hunting scheme, Saeeduz Zaman said government had allowed hunting of limited number of Markhors and Ibex under the Trophy Hunting Program.

The program was aimed at protection of the endangered animals through involvement of communities and fund raising.

In the trophy hunting scheme, communities are being involved in conservation of wildlife and revenue generation by sale of hunting permits of protected animals and the amount is mostly spent on development of involved communities.

This year, he said, the Wildlife department earned 215,500 dollars through sale of three permits of Markhor hunting. During the current game, two animals were hunted in Chitral and one in Kohistan.

In Chitral, Mr. Te Pavel of Russian and Mr. John Joseph Lo Monaco of US brought down the animals in Toshi Sha Sha Markhor Conservancy and paid dollars 80,500 each.

He said Joseph Alian Smith hunted the animal in Kaigah game reserve, Kohistan, and paid dollars 55,000.--APP

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Call to retrieve state land in Chitral

Chitral Today Report

CHITRAL, April 19, 2011: Mr. Shahzada Ibarhim Pirzada, the chairperson of NCCB monitoring cell for Chitral/Gilgit-Baltistan and member of Transparency International, has said some of the local politicians in the past had handed over state land in the valley to their relatives and cronies and created problems for the government as well as the communities.

In a statement, he said these people had been charged a reason amount against the land and also made a good voter for the time being.

He said the local communities had been using these lands for grazing animals and collecting firewood for their livelihood. Now a great vacuum has been created between the government department concerned and the local communities. He said the government in Chitral already lacked state property.

Mr. Shahzada said the district government’s department concerned should take stern action against such politicians who used the government property for their own benefit otherwise the NCCB would file a case against them with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Islamabad.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Qaqlasht Festival final draws crowds

CHITRAL, April 18, 2011: The four-day Qaqlasht festival witnessed a great rush of spectators from all parts of the district on its final day on Monday and people, including women and children, enjoyed the folk sports of shooting, falconry, tug-of-war and traditional football (bampu ghal).

Haider Wali Haideri, who has been associated with organizing the festival for the last 21 years, told this correspondent that this year the response of people was unprecedented.

In the competitions held on village level, Booni town emerged winner by grabbing cricket, tug-of-war, bampu ghall and mountain race titles.

Morder village clinched football cup; Faizur Rahman Laal and companions of Kosht village won target shooting competition; and Hayat Shah of Torkhow was declared the winner of falconry. Chitral Scouts lifted the volleyball trophy.

The final of polo match between Booni and Kosht could not be held for shortage of time and would be played next week.

District development advisory committee chairman Ghulam Mohammad, who was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony, gave away prizes to the winning teams and players.

On this occasion, Mr Ghulam praised the Tourism Corporation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for sponsoring the Kagh Lusht festival and said that the tourism potential of upper Chitral needed to be exploited to end unemployment and poverty in the area.

He said that many areas of the tourist resort still needed to be discovered and developed to attract tourists.

“We have a large number of picnic spots and many unique and interesting things to offer to the tourists, but serious work is still needed to be done to develop the tourism sector,” he said.--Zahiruddin

Monday, April 18, 2011

Upper Chitral farmers in hot water

CHITRAL, April 17, 2011: Farmers will not be able to carry out wheat cultivation in the flood-hit areas of Chitral this season due to exorbitant prices of wheat seed, fertilizer, pesticides and charges of tractors.

Talking to this correspondent here on Sunday, a number of farmers from upper Chitral said they had lost their standing crop of wheat to the torrential rain in July last year due to which they had suffered a lot.

They said almost 100 per cent farmers grew wheat for household consumption and providing fodder to animals in the form of chaff.

Former general councillor Samiul Haq said despite tall claims of the government and different NGOs, they did not receive any aid to be able to cultivate wheat for the season.

Riaz Ali, organizer of an NGO, said due to rampant poverty in the area even families with moderate income could hardly make both ends meet.--Zahiruddin

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Environment walk held at Qaqlasht in Chitral

Report R.A. Jaffar Dost

BOONI, April 17, 2011: A walk was held at Qaqlasht at the sideline of the annual festival to create public awareness about environment on Sunday. The walk was led by retired Subedar Rehmat Noor Husain of Charun.

A large number of people attended the walk. Jashne Qaqlasht vice chairman Mukhtar Lal of Booni and general secretary Mustansir Lal of Morder were also present along with other elites of the area. The walk was organized by Chitral Heritage and Envirnment Protection Society.

RPM of FOCUS Chitral Amir Mohammad was also present. Chitral police and TMA Mastuj also took part in arranging the walk. Students from Boroghil and all schools and colleges in Booni also attended the walk in a large number.

The participants collected waste and garbage in the festival site and disposed them of. The organizers requested the visitors and tourists going to the venue of any festival or match to take care of the environment and not scatter the waste in the open.

Meanwhile, the final matches of the festival were postponed to Monday due to intermittent rain on Sunday. A large number of people were present at the venue and they enjoyed the festival in the pleasant weather.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Qaqlasht Festival continues

CHITRAL, April 16, 2011: The valley of Chitral is very peaceful and paradises-like place, and its people are peace loving and have rich cultural and eco-tourism potential.

These views were express by Mrs Robin Raphel, country director United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who was chief guest at the quarterfinal polo match of Qaqlasht festival. She determined that concrete steps would be taken for promoting eco-tourism in Chitral. She highly hailed hospitality and peace loving nature of Chitrali people.

Earlier, she was briefed by Shamsuddin, Manager Chitral Association for Mountain Areas Tourism (CAMAT), about the role of CAMAT in promoting tourism and especially eco-tourism in the Hindukush region.

She threw the ball into the ground and opened the match between Reshun B and Booni B polo teams.
On the first day of the festival, 12 cricket teams, six football teams, four volleyball teams, two polo teams, two tug of war teams participated. While on the second day of the festival, eight football teams participated.

Charun football team defeated Torkho, Booni defeated Kushum team, Lone beat Reshun and Booni defeated Degree College.—GH Farooqui

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Markhor deaths due to climate change, official

CHITRAL, April 13, 2011: According to a handout released by Mr. Imtiaz Hussain, Divisional Forest officer Wildlife Division Chitral, the major causes for the loss of the Markhors was lungs and pannonia diseases due to climate change.

Mr. Imtiaz said that Tooshi-Shaha Game reserve spreads over an area of 20,000 hectares, and supports good population of Markhors. This game reserve is managing on participatory approach, jointly by Wildlife Department and local
communities through Wildlife Act 1975 and Private Game Reserve Rule 1993. He also confirmed that every year Markhors of below one year age died in the area due to Climate change. He said the department has formed an inquiry team which consists of expert from Wildlife Department Chitral, Livestock Department Chitral and WWF-Pakistan Chitral in order to look in to the matter and the said inquiry team is visited the area and conformed seven death Markhors less than one year of ages.
Mr. Imtiaz said the news published in some local newspapers regarding the high rate of losses of Markhor in Tooshi-Shaha Game reserve was not based on facts and the actual story was not highlighted.

He said that according to livestock specialists the mortality was due to climate change and disturbance and variation in the local environment.--Kashif Ahmad

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Stop eliminating the trout fish of Garum Chashma

Reproduced from Chitral Today (chitraltoday.com)

Garum Chashma valley in Chitral is famous for its scenic beauty and crystal clear blue water stream. The Garum Chashma River is the abode of world class Rainbow Trout(Oncorhynchus mykiss), which is in high demand for being multi vitamin and is important specie of fresh water ecosystem, introduced in the era of our British masters.

Rainbow trout are highly prized as game fish because they fight hard to free themselves, leaping high out of the water. Rainbow trout are often quite beautiful, with spotted backs and a red splash across their sides. Colours are especially pronounced specially in the spawning season.

Unfortunately the story of this trout is very much tragic. Indiscriminate killing of the fish starts right by the end of spring to the autumn. The fish undergoes breeding period from June to the end of August and it is not spared even its breeding hours; the result is a great decline in population of the fish to the point of extinction.

Last year the district fisheries department appealed to the hunters to stop fish catch, which proves nothing more than an eye wash. Special measures are needed to control the population decline of the trout. The watchdog appointed by fishery department is highly ineffective to say the least, because the offenders are devising new techniques for fish haunt every day.

Generally the operation against the fish starts after 9pm in which large fishing nets are used to filter fish from the river, obviously without any legal permit. Use of dynamite to incapacitate the fish for good catch is known to everybody in the area. The toxic ingredients of dynamite such as nitroglycerine are disruptive for food chain in fresh water ecosystem causing diseases in the long run in aquatic organisms beside disastrous immediate effects. The act constitutes crime against animal specie and the offenders go unnoticed and unpunished.

Due to critical decline in the trout fish population the local tourism and recreation has come to a stand still. Serious efforts are needed to arrest the complete degeneration of this highly valued fish in the area not only from the responsible department but also from the local communities. The best solution to the problem lies in taking the local communities on board; as long as the community is not involved in the effort to save this fish from degeneration, no effort can be fruitful to protect the specie. To this end the district fishery department may amply make joint partnership for fish conservation with village conservative societies which are very effectively working in the area.

Law enforcement agencies would also go a long way to stop the rot provided they extend scrupulous legal hand.





Fidaul Karim

Shoghore (April 13, 2011).

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Gender inequality in education

From Chitral Today (chitraltoday.com).


By Shafiqur Rehman



Gender refers to socially constructed roles and responsibilities of women and men. The difference in roles and responsibilities among women and men stems from our families, societies and culture (Chaudhry, 2009). The concept of gender includes our expectations about the characteristics, attitudes and behaviors of women and men. The different roles, rights and resources that both the genders have in society are important determinants of the nature and scope of their inequality and poverty. Inequality in access to resources between women and men is most common in poor and developing countries. Gender inequality/discrimination refers to inequality in conditions among women and men for realizing their human rights.

In Pakistan, home has been defined as women legitimate ideological and physical space where she performs her practical role as a mother and wife, while a man dominates the world outside the home and performs his productive role as a bread winner. Men and women are conceptually divided into two separate worlds. The household resources are allocated in the favor of sons due to their productive role. Male members of the family are given better education and are equipped with skills to compete for resources in public field (ADB, 2000), while female members are imparted domestic skills to be good mothers and wives. They are given limited opportunities to create choices for themselves in order to change the realities of their lives.

Pakistan shows gender inequality in education. Therefore, strong gender disparities exist in educational attainment between rural and urban areas and among the provinces in Pakistan (ADB, 2000). Pakistan is a patriarchal society, where women suffer all sorts of discrimination, resulting in low social, economic and political status in the society. According to the UNDP (1999), gender gap is increasing in all social sectors of Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 120 in 146 countries in terms of gender- related development index, and in terms of gender empowerment measurement ranking, it ranks 92 in 94 countries. Gender inequality in education can be measured by looking the Gross and net enrollment rates and completion and drop rates. Cultural limitations discourage parents from sending their daughters to mixed gender schools (NEP, 2007). However, the problem is not just of demand. There have been situations where girls are enrolled in boys’ schools even up to matric level, indicating that supply of quality girls schooling is falling short. Similarly, poor physical environment or lack of basic facilities in schools also discourages parents from sending their girls to schools.

According to National Educational Policy of Pakistan (2007), the educational status of women in Pakistan is unacceptably low, in fact, amongst the lowest in the world. The problem emanates at the primary level, as low participation and high dropouts at that stage prevent females from reaching higher education and equitable opportunities for such furtherance do not become available to the female gender. According to the Ministry of Women Development (2007) cited in NEP( 2007), only 19% of females have attained education up to Matric, 8% up to Intermediate, 5% a Bachelor’s degree and 1.4% achieved a Master’s degree. 60% of the female adult population is illiterate. Of the 3.3 million out of school children, 2.503 million are girls. 73.6% of primary age girls attend school, compared with 92.1% of boys. Moreover, a sizeable majority of rural girls drop out of primary schools.

Women in Pakistan do not form a homogeneous entity; their opportunities vary greatly with the social system that they are part of. In rural areas, patriarchal structures often combine with poverty to limit opportunities for women (NEP, 2007), while women belonging to the upper and middle classes have increasingly greater access to education and employment opportunities and can assume greater control over their lives. Educated and professional women in urban areas and from upper classes of the society enjoy much better status and rights than illiterate women in rural areas of Pakistan. Women in tribal areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and remote areas of southern Punjab and Interior Sindh live in more unpleasant social conditions than women in other parts of the country (PESFD, 2006-07). In rural areas, women are discouraged in attaining higher education just for the sake of avoiding the time when women can lead man, while in urban areas women are encouraged to get education, so girls actively join the professional and technical courses. But after getting technically and professionally qualified they are not allowed permission to work, this is the reason we don’t find females at offices as much as we find males. This is the major drawback as it leads a nation towards economic disaster as half the nation in the form of females if won’t participate in economic activities and hence their professional qualification goes in the bin (UNDP, 1998). Girls excel in academics so more girls avail admissions in medical colleges. But, after getting qualified as M.B.S.S, majority girls do not practice due to our social issues.

In villages girls are usually not asked whom do they want to marry; parents just fix their wedding of their daughters to the groom of their choice. Sometime for land and money parents fix the wedding of their young girl to an old man. It has been observed that if a couple is involved in some unethical practice, people points the girl only, while boy is never considered guilty. If a female marries twice or thrice, she is considered awful, while the case is totally different in the case of the male. Divorced lady is treated in the same manner. Today’s life is male oriented. Females face gender discrimination everywhere. Discrimination is generated when the balance is not found. What to blame other people, when parents themselves initiate gender disparity. Some parents only send their sons to schools while some send their sons and daughters both to schools but they put boys in good schools and girls in government local schools (Chaudhry, 2009). Some forward-thinking people send both their sons and daughters to good schools but at the time of sending children abroad, they discriminate and send their sons at first place.

Women’s lower social, economic, and cultural standing results in the low health and educational status of women. Social and familial control over women’s sexuality, their economic dependence on men, and restrictions on their mobility determine differential access of males and females to health services. Intra-household bias in food distribution leads to nutritional deficiencies among female children. Early marriages of girls, excessive childbearing, lack of control over their own bodies, and a high level of illiteracy adversely affect women’s health. Institutionalized gender bias within the health service delivery system in terms of lack of female service providers, and neglect of women’s basic and reproductive health needs, intensify women’s disadvantaged health status (ADB, 2000). Strong gender disparities exist in educational attainment between rural and urban areas and among the provinces. In 1996–1997 the literacy rate in urban areas was 58.3 percent while in rural areas it was 28.3 percent, and only 12 percent among rural women. There are also considerable inequalities in literacy rates among the four provinces, especially disparities between men and women (ADB, 2000).

Education is the most important instrument for human resource development (Chaudhry, 2009). It has become a universal human right and an important component of opportunities and empowerment of women. A large number of empirical studies (World Bank, 2007 & Schultz, 2002) find that increase in women’s education boosts their wages and that returns to education for women are frequently larger than that of men. There are also many empirical evidences that, increase in female education improves human development outcomes such as child survival, health and schooling (World Bank, 2001). Klasen (2002) explored that lower female education had a negative impact on economic growth as it lowered the average level of human capital. According to Knowles (2002), in developing countries female education reduces fertility, infant mortality and increases in children’s education.

Government of Pakistan makes amendments in the Constitution and promulgation of Local Government Ordinance, 2001; at least 33 percent of seats in each tier of local government are women. In the National Assembly, more than 60 seats are held by women out of 332 seats while over 128 seats are held by women out of 728 seats in the provincial assemblies. Similarly, there are 17 women in the Senate out of 100 members (Perveen & Rakhshinda, 2005). While most of these women have been elected on reserved seats, some have won on general seats. Women participation in politics as voters, candidates and political activists is increasing. Representation by women is better than in most countries of the world, including the largest democracies of the world. This provides a good opportunity to address the gender gap in the education, social, economic and health sectors. Now there is a growing realization at the policy making level of the government that gender disparities and inequalities cannot be accepted and government has initiated a number of programs/projects and taken practical steps to reduce gender inequalities.

—The writer is an MEd student at AKU-IED Karachi

Who can steer PPP out of crisis?

Chitral Today (chitraltoday.com)

ISLAMABAD, April 12, 2011: Leg-pulling and wrangling continue in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chitral about nomination of its office-bearers. For the last many decades, the PPP has been in disarray in Chitral mainly due to lack of leadership and groupings among its cadres.

This was the reason the PPP lost its vote bank in Chitral which was once considered to be its stronghold. It was also due to lack of leadership that candidates for the National Assembly seat were imported from Larkana and Karachi.

Political observers say a group of myopic people have hijacked the party at the district level and due to their self-interest and infighting; energetic, educated and sincere people commanding people’s confidence and political influence remained on the back burner - always discouraged to come forward and steer the party out of the crisis.

They referred to reaction of the local PPP leadership to the announcement of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) MNA Shahzada Mohiuddin to join the party in Aug 2008.

"The local leaders of the PPP saw their political demise in Mr Mohiuddin’s joining the PPP and they launched a campaign from the district as well as the provincial level saying the 'PPP has no room for any prince.'”

This was despite the fact the Mr Mohiuddin was not interested to stand candidate for the posts of PPP’s district president or the secretary general, said the observers.

The MNA said PPP workers and activists in Chitral had welcomed his decision to join the party. He said he had strong vote bank in the valley and since 1985 he had been elected twice chairman district council, once district nazim and four time member National Assembly.

“The area has also been a stronghold of the PPP but due to lack of leadership the party has been losing ground and my joining of the party would have strengthened it at the grassroots level,” he added.

Shahzada Mohiuddin that said during a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani in Aug 2008, he had been requested to join and support the PPP. On this, Mr Mohiuddin said he had agreed to join the PPP and nominate his son Khalid Pervez to lead the party at the district level till the defection clause in the constitution was changed. However, he said, it did not go well with the so-called PPP leaders in Chitral who started a campaign against his joining the party.

He said it would be an insult for him to approach the local PPP leaders and the party’s provincial president Zahir Shah for getting their consent before joining the party. He said he had strong political support in Chitral and had nominated his son to lead the party of Pervez Musharraf and challenge his opponents in the coming election.--chitraltoday.com

Kagh Lasht Festival from 14th

Chitral Today Report

CHITRAL, April 10, 2011: The three-day Kagh Lasht Festival will start from April 14 (Thursday).

The event held every year since time immemorial is to welcome the arrival of spring season in the area. This year’s festival is being organized by the Sarhad Tourism Corporation (STC).

DCO Rehmatullah Wazir said the event would feature competition of local folk sports including polo besides contributing a lot towards revival and rejuvenation of the local culture.

He said tug-of-war, weight-lifting and throwing, firing with obsolete and outdated weapons, mountain race and many other local sports would form the chart of competitions during the festival.

He said the polo matches between the teams of different valleys were enthusiastically watched by the people as they thronged the venue to encourage their respective teams.

He said 12-km-long and three-km-wide plateau of Kagh Lasht offered an eye-catching and dazzling view with the advent of spring season, adding picnickers from all parts of Chitral thronged the area.

Mr Wazir said the tourism potential of the area needed to be exploited to attract maximum number of tourists, adding the Sarhad Tourism Corporation had heeded their request to patronize the Kagh Lasht festival.
He said that efforts were being made to advertise the venue as the popular picnic spot during the spring season where all the basic facilities would be provided to the tourists.--Zahiruddin

Awesome and rugged

Awesome and rugged

Beauty of Chitral

Beauty of Chitral
Kishmanja, a beautiful village in Yarkhun valley

Lush green

Lush green

DIZG: threatened by floods

DIZG: threatened by floods

The legendary village of Ayun in Chitral

The legendary village of Ayun in Chitral
On way to Bumburet

Dizg, Yarkhun

Dizg, Yarkhun

About Me

My photo
Village Dizg, Yarkhun valley, Chitral, Pakistan
I blog at http://chitraltoday.net (ChitralToday) about Chitral, its people, culture, traditions and issues. I have been writing about Chitral since 2000. Chitral is a scenic valley in the extreme north-west of Pakistan.