Participants of Ghizer Youth Maraka blast successive governments for their failure and apathy in addressing the issue

by Ali Rehmat Shimshali Have you ever imagined progress of a society, or a nation without women? To answer this question, let us confine it to our homes. What troubles do we face in the absence of our moms and sisters? They are nuclous in every family and society. When the nuclous breaks the entire system collapses. So how can …

For years, suicide cases in Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan have been haunting the mountain communities, but a fresh wave of suicides has left them baffled. Ahmad Faraz sheds light on the issue with a nuanced understanding of the local milieu.

By Rozina Parveen When the horrors of life outway the terrors of death a man commits suicide — Albert Camus Suicide cases are on the rise in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. According to media reports in Pakistan 20 people, mostly female, aged between 15 and 35 years, take their lives every day. According to studies and survey reports, there has been …

The mission is especially alarmed by the apparent surge in suicide cases in various parts of GB, particularly in district Ghizer. A large number of these victims comprise women and the mission has reason to believe that some cases of honour killings have been labelled suicide and thus ‘forgotten

Unprecedented flash floods, water scarcity, dying glaciers, abruptly changing weather patterns, rising cases of rare diseases, and climate-change-induced loss of natural habitat are some of the discernible symptoms that are already on display in Pakistan.

Rizwan Qalandar has attempted to translate a song of Rahimullah Rahim, perhaps one of the most difficult contemporary poets, from Hunza. He is a free soul, a socialist philosopher who started off as a  young singer in early 1990s but more recently has turned towards deeply philosophical poetry with messages for the society. He is perhaps the only poet in …

The community members in Chorbat area of Baltistan including women and children have left their villages and taken to the streets for the second time in less than a month to protest against the growing police victimization of their community members.The community members have reported that the police are raiding their homes and detaining male members without following due course …

By Sultan Madad After a long and soulful journey of showering happiness with the beats of his drum, the legendary music master and all-time great drummer Ali Gohar of Hunza passed away two days ago at the age of 103. He played drum for over 90 years. A long chapter of our centuries old heritage is closed with the demise …

By Inayat Amir Islamabad: The people of Gilgit-Baltistan especially members of civil society, youth organizations and journalists have opposed the regional government’s move to regularize contractual employees in violation of merit. The PTI government had earlier regularized more than sixty contractual employees, including some BPS-17 officers, under the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Employees (Regularisation of Services) Act, 2020. Irked by the move, concerned …

By KOSAR BANO & CHIMI SELDON The Shisper Glacier surge blocking the proglacial Machuhar River, resulting in the formation of an ice-dammed lake Photo: PMD, GBDMA/ICIMOD/HAH Mountain communities are living with the risks and impacts of steady glacial surges, vagaries of weather patterns and increased incidences of cryosphere-related hazards. The impacts of these hazards are not just limited to the destruction of …

Young academic cautions youth about neoliberal ‘development mantra Special Correspondent Professor Zaighum Abbas speaking on the proposed provisional provincial status for Gilgit-Baltistan at an interactive session with students of the GB Punjab University campus. Photo HAH LAHORE: Debate on the proposed constitutional setup for Gilgit-Baltistan reverberates in and outside the mountainous region. Youth and activists from GB in Pakistan and …

News Desk Like other parts of Pakistan, women in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) are facing multiple problems, including gender-based dicrimination, domestic violence and harassment. They are being deprived of their basic human rights including access to education, healthcare, right of expression, and employment. This was said by Ghazala Nazir, an activist and member of the National Women Front (NWF) Gilgit-Baltistan Sindh Zone …

by Kosar Bano, Dr Reshma Parveen, & Rozina Ahmed International Working Women’s Day (IWWD) is celebrated every year on March 8 to claim public spaces, highlight women’s struggle for equal rights in political, social, economic, and cultural spheres and recognize their achievements around the World. In Pakistan, various feminist and women’s rights organizations have been celebrating IWWD for many years …

by Sanam Mahir In Shimshal, they still talk about the night the quietest girl in the valley disappeared. On June 6, 2021, 21-year-old Adiba Parveen visited her mother’s house for a cup of tea. She could not stay long, she told her mother, as her husband was leaving the next morning to return to his post in the army and …