The unlawful closure of the Lowari tunnel is proving life threatening for the people of Chitral, cutting them off from food supplies and health facilities. Maureen Lines reports
A Chitrali might be forgiven for wondering who is in charge of KPK – the National Highway Authority, or the Koreans in the name of their construction company SAMBU. Where is the government’s writ? The Peshawar High Court ordered the opening of the Lowari Pass at least three days of the week but this court order is being cavalierly overlooked. The NHA and SAMBU are asking the government for lakhs of rupees as compensation for the amount of time the pass is opened to the general public, citing losses due to the stalling of construction work on the tunnel.
I managed to cross over the Lowari three weeks ago. The Pass was closed. Trucks were ploughing their way through with essential supplies for the winter along with a few four-wheel drive vehicles. We passed one horrific looking crash site between what had once been a saloon car and a truck. On the way back, my Chitrali driver had a near fatal accident, when a truck slid on the icy road and hit the side of his door. Why was the tunnel not opened?
The Peshawar High Court decreed the Lowari Tunnel should be opened three days a week to facilitate the people of Chitral. Nothing happened. Vehicles continued to become stuck in the snow. The people of the area continued to suffer hours of freezing cold. Trucks were unable to bring food to sustain the population during the cold winter months. Why should the citizens of Chitral, Drosh, and the valleys be penalized? Why should they have to march to demand what is their right? To keep the tunnel closed will and is causing human suffering.
[quote]Transporters and other business people are facing ruination[/quote]
Twice, during the last two weeks, my adopted family, a mother with four children, and my driver, have set out from Birir to make the dangerous journey. Twice they have been turned back at Asheret. The last time, my driver called me around ten o’clock in the morning to tell me they were stuck along with hundreds of other vehicles and were trying to return. A Chitral Scout told them that they might (might!) open the tunnel at nine in the evening! That meant eleven hours sitting in the bitter cold with no assurance of getting through.
On the Dir side of the pass, my Peshawar driver had to turn back yet again, this time with a patient we had brought to Peshawar for a serious operation. So far, these aborted journeys, including damage to my vehicle, due to the collision on the Lowari, have cost me forty thousand rupees. That is financial. What of the stress to me, my family and to others now stuck on the pass or at the entrance of the tunnel? Is that quantifiable? But those two rogue elephants, as someone has called them, are unmindful and have fixed a price of several lakhs rupees a day.
Nomads on the Lowari Top
It is an outrage, an official agreed with me, adding it was against all human rights. Chitral is now like a besieged town; not besieged by militants or some invading army, but by lack of care, commitment and governmental action.
At the end of last week, the people of Chitral were informed that the tunnel would finally be opened on Saturdays and Sundays. Just two days. The people were bitter, but were eager to try and avail themselves of this narrow window of opportunity.
[quote]The cost of food in Chitral will be prohibitive this winter[/quote]
I cautioned my family. Don’t go on the first day. It will be chaotic. Obviously I am prophetic. Instead of the tunnel being open for 36 or 48 hours, the NHA decided that it should only be opened at 12.30 am and then only for three hours both on Saturdays and Sundays. I did not know this until I read Sunday’s newspaper. As I was writing this, my family were somewhere in the vicinity of the tunnel on the Chitral side. My Peshawar driver put our patient and his family in a four wheel drive vehicle in Dir. He had a long wait ahead of him. It was bitterly cold there since it had rained early on.
Winter travel on the Lowari
How are the people of Chitral going to sustain themselves through the winter months? The stores are inadequate and there is a lack of all commodities due to which transporters and other business people can face ruination. At the moment there are something like a hundred trucks with food held up on the Dir side of the tunnel, says a Chitrali friend.
The cost of food in Chitral will be prohibitive this winter, as will fuel. What about the sick who need to come to Peshawar? I have a suspect cancer case to bring down. A friend suggested PIA. PIA? Once upon a time there were two flights a day. Now if there is one flight a week, it is a miracle. Alhamdu’Ilah, my family have made it, but what about all those others? The order of the court needs to be implemented, and implemented now.
