Northern Areas

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Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA)
Capital  • Coordinates	Gilgit  • 35.35° N 75.9° E
Population (2003)  • Density	1,500,000 (estimated)  • 20.7/km²
Area	72496 km²
Time zone	PST (UTC+5)
Main language(s)	Urdu (national) Shina (official) Balti Tibetan Wakhi Khajuna Khowar
Status	dependency
• Districts	•  6
• Towns	•  7
• Union Councils	•
Established  • Governor/Commissioner  • Chief Minister  • Legislature (seats)	1st July 1970  • Imran Ali  • Irfan Ali and Shahid Hussain (dual role)  • Northern Areas Legislative Assembly (29)
Website	Development Gateway

This article details the area administered by Pakistan. For the whole region see Kashmir

The Northern Areas (Urdu: شمالی علاقہ جات, Shumālī Ilāqe Jāt), officially referred to by the government of Pakistan as the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA), is the northernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It borders Pakistan to the west, Afghanistan to the north, China to the northeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the south, and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. The Northern Areas, which became a single administrative unit in 1970, was formed from the amalgamation of the Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan District of the Ladakh Wazarat, and the states of Hunza and Nagar. Northern Areas remains part of the Kashmir dispute and is claimed by India as part of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan regards the entire area of the Indian occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir as "territory in dispute" to be resolved by a plebiscite to be held throughout the former state in order to determine the area's accession to either India or Pakistan. In 1950, the government of India, ignoring a United Nations resolution on Kashmir, abandoned its pledge to hold a plebiscite. The government of Pakistan, while continuing to call for a plebiscite, has, so far, been unwilling to entertain the idea of a third option for that plebiscite, i.e., the choice of independence for the entire former state.

[edit] History

After the partition of India in 1947, Jammu and Kashmir, in its entirety, remained an independent state, as a result of Maharaja Hari Singh's decision to refrain from joining either India or Pakistan. Tribal fighters from Pakistan invaded Kashmir and were backed by regular Pakistani troops. Fearing the might of Pakistani forces, the maharaja sought military help from India and agreed to have his state join India on a provisional basis, subject to a state-wide plebiscite to be held at a later date. India accepted that conditional arrangement, and the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947-48 was fought to send Pakistani forces back. However, the war was not decisive, and a cease-fire was called in 1948. The end of the war saw India gaining the greater part of Kashmir, including the fertile Kashmir valley, with Pakistan securing the northern and western parts of the former state. The Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir to the north and west of the ceasefire line or the Line of Control, as it later came to be called, were divided into the Northern Areas (72,496 km²) in the north and the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) (13,297 km²) in the south. The name "Northern Areas" was first used by the United Nations, to refer to the northern areas of Kashmir. The United Nations never intended the name to refer to the northern areas of Pakistan. As far as the United Nations is concerned, the entire area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Northern Areas, remains a disputed territory still awaiting resolution of the long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan. A small part of the Northern Areas, the Trans-Karakoram Tract, was provisionally ceded by Pakistan to the People's Republic of China in 1963.

[edit] Subdivisions

Map of the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA), showing the boundaries of the six previous districts and their tehsils. The boundary of the recently created Hunza-Nagar District is the northern boundary of the former Gilgit tehsil.

The Northern Areas is divided into seven districts^[1] in two divisions: the two Baltistan districts of Skardu and Ghanche, and the five Gilgit districts of Gilgit, Ghizer, Diamer, Astore, and Hunza-Nagar. The main political centres are the towns of Gilgit and Skardu.

Before the partition of Kashmir, Baltistan was part of the province of Ladakh. Skardu was the winter capital of Ladakh for 106 years.

[edit] Geography

K2 as seen from Concordia

Satpara Lake, Skardu, in 2002

The Northern Areas borders the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the Xinjiang autonomous region of China to the northeast, the Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir to the south and southeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the south and the North-West Frontier Province to the west.

The Northern Areas is a major destination for foreign tourists, especially serious mountaineers, because it is home to five of the eight-thousanders and more than fifty peaks above 7000 meters. Gilgit and Skardu are the two main hubs for all expeditions to those mountains. The region is home to some of the world's highest mountain ranges — the main ranges are the Karakoram and the western Himalayas. The Pamir mountains are to the north, and the Hindu Kush lies to the west. Amongst the highest mountains are K2 (Godwin-Austen) and Nanga Parbat, the latter being one of the most feared mountains in the world.

Three of the world's longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in the Northern Areas--the Biafo Glacier, the Baltoro Glacier, and the Batura Glacier. There are, in addition, several high-altitude lakes in the Northern Areas:

• Sheotsar Tso Lake in Byarsa Thang / Deosai Plains - Baltistan
• Satpar Tso Lake in Skardu - Baltistan
• Katzura Tso Lake in Skardu - Baltistan
• Zharba Tso Lake in Shigar - Baltistan
• Phoroq Tso Lake in Skardu - Baltistan
• Bara Tso Lake in Gangche - Baltistan
• Byarsa Tso Lake in Gultari - Baltistan
• Borith Lake in upper Hunza - Gilgit
• Rama Lake near Astore - Gilgit
• Rush Lake near Nagar - Gilgit
• Kromber Lake In Kromber Pass - Gilgit

The Deosai Plains, called Byarsa in Baltistan, is located above the tree line, and is the second-highest plateau in the world at 4,115 meters (14,500 feet). They lie south of Skardu and west of Ladakh. The area was declared to be a national park in 1993. The Deosai Plains cover an area of almost 5,000 square kilometres. For over half the year (between September and May), Deosai is snow-bound and cut off from rest of Baltistan. The villages of Byarsa / Deosai are connected with the Kargil district of Ladakh through an all-weather road, but due to the closure of the border with the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, the people of Byarsa and Gultari are stranded for the winter months and are, therefore, not able to take advantage of the economic resources of Ladakh during that time.

[edit] Climate

The climate of the Northern Areas varies from region to region. There are towns like Gilgit and Chilas that are very hot during the day in summer, yet cold at night, and valleys like Astore, Khaplu, Yasin, Hunza, and Nagar where the temperatures are cold even in summer.

[edit] Sports

Polo is the favourite game of the people of Gilgit, Chilas, Astore, Hunza, and the surrounding areas. People are very fond of that game. Every year, a great number of tourists come to enjoy polo in the Northern Areas. Others games such as cricket, gulli danda, kabadi, and volleyball are also played there.

[edit] Rock art and petroglyphs

Ancient petroglyphs near Chilas

There are more than 20,000 pieces of rock art and petroglyphs all along the Karakoram Highway in the Northern Areas, that are concentrated at ten major sites between Hunza and Shatial. The carvings were left by various invaders, traders, and pilgrims who passed along the trade route, as well as by locals. The earliest date back to between 5000 and 1000 BCE, showing single animals, triangular men and hunting scenes in which the animals are larger than the hunters. These carvings were pecked into the rock with stone tools and are covered with a thick patina that proves their age. The archaeologist Karl Jettmar has pieced together the history of the area from various inscriptions and recorded his findings in Rock Carvings and Inscriptions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan^[2] and the later released Between Gandhara and the Silk Roads - Rock Carvings Along the Karakoram Highway^[3].

[edit] Transport

Prior to 1978, the Northern Areas was cut off from Pakistan due to the harsh terrain and the lack of accessible roads. All of the roads to the south opened towards the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AKJ) and to the southeast towards the present-day Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. During the summer, people could walk across the mountain passes to travel to Rawalpindi. The fastest way to travel, however, was by air, but air travel was accessible only to a few privileged local people and to Pakistani military and civilian officials. Then, with the assistance of the Chinese government, Pakistan began construction of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), which was completed in 1978. The Karakoram Highway (KKH) connects Islamabad to Gilgit and Skardu, which are the two major hubs for mountaineering expeditions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. The journey from Islamabad to Gilgit takes approximately 20-24 hours. Landslides on Karakoram Highway are very common. KKH connects Gilgit to Taxkorgan and Kaxgar in Xinjiang, China via Sust (the customs and health inspection post on Pakistan side) and theKhunjerab Pass, the highest paved international border crossing in the world at 4,693 metres (15,397 feet).

NATCO (Northern Areas Transport Corporation) offers bus and jeep transport service to the two hubs and several other popular destinations, lakes, and glaciers in the area.

The Karakoram Highway

In March 2006, the respective governments announced that, commencing on June 1, 2006, a thrice weekly bus service would begin across the boundary from Gilgit, Northern Areas to Kashgar, China and road widening work would begin on 600 kilometres of the Karakoram Highway. There would also be one daily bus in each direction between the Sust and Taxkorgan border areas of the two countries. ^[4]

Pakistan International Airlines used to fly a Fokker F27 daily between Gilgit Airport and Islamabad International Airport. The flying time is approximately 50 minutes, and the flight is one of the most scenic flights in the world, as its route passes over Nanga Parbat, and the peak of the mountain is higher than the aircraft's cruising altitude. PIA also offers regular flights of Boeing 737 between Skardu and Islamabad. However, the Fokker F27 was retired after the crash at Multan in 2006. Currently flights are being operated by PIA to Gilgit on the brand new ATR42-500 aircraft purchased in 2006. Due to this the cancellation of flights is much less than in the Fokker days. All flights, however, are subject to weather clearance, and in winters, flights are often delayed by several days.

[edit] Demographics

The population consists of many diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious groups due in part to the many isolated valleys separated by some of the world's highest mountains. Urdu is the lingua franca of the region, understood by most male inhabitants. The Shina language (with several dialects) is the language of 40% of the population, spoken mainly in Gilgit, throughout Diamer, and some parts of Ghizer. The Balti language, a sub-dialect of Ladakhi and part of Tibetan language group is spoken by the entire population of Baltistan. Minor languages spoken in the area include Wakhi spoken in upper Hunza, and some villages in Ghizer, while Khowar is the major language of Ghizer. Burushaski is an isolated language spoken in Hunza, Nagar, Yasin (where Khowar is also spoken), some parts of Gilgit and some villages of Punyal. Another interesting language is Domaaki, spoken by the musician clans of the region. A small minority also speaks Pashto. Despite being called a part of Kashmir, not a single person living in the Area speaks Kashmiri or any of its dielects.

At the last census (1998), the population of the Northern Areas was 870,347. ^[5] Approximately 14% of the population was urban. ^[6]>>

[edit] National honours

The Northern Light Infantry was primarily used during the Kargil War and suffered heavy losses; The Herald, a Pakistani publication, stated that more than 500 soldiers were killed and buried in the northern areas^[7]. Lalak Jan from Yasin, Northern Areas was awarded Pakistan's highest medal, Nishan-e-Haider for his courageous actions during the Kargil conflict.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Pakistan Trekking Guide, by Isobel and Ben Shaw, 1993.
• Raman, Anita D (February 2004). "Of Rivers and Human Rights: The Northern Areas, Pakistan's Forgotten Colony in Jammu and Kashmir". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 11: 187-228. doi:10.1163/1571811041631272. ISSN (Print) 1571-8115 (Online) 1385-4879 (Print) 1571-8115 (Online). 

[edit] See also

• Karakoram
• Karakoram Highway
• Indus River
• List of mountains in Pakistan
• Kargil War
• Gorikot
• Northern Light Infantry
• List of topics on the land and the people of “Jammu and Kashmir”
• Glacier growing

[edit] External links

Pakistan Portal

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• Northern Areas Government website
• Northern Areas Development Gateway
• Northern Areas tourism
• Northern Areas at the Open Directory Project
• Northern Areas (Pakistan) travel guide from Wikitravel
• Wikia has a wiki on this subject: Pakistan