21 April 2005	Thursday	11 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 20: A crisis of a sort is developing in Chitral as the district remains cut off from the rest of the country for the fourth month running. The source of this bleak scenario is the 10,000-foot-high Lowari Pass which has remained closed longer than usual this year due to unprecedented snowfall.

The people of the district wished the government had put in extra efforts to remove snow from the pass as the likelihood of items of daily-use becoming scarcer in the district starts to sink in.

However, officials in the National Highway Authority (NHA), which looks after the Nowshera-Chitral highway via the Lowari Pass, said efforts were being made to open the road, but work to remove snow on Chitral’s side could not be undertaken due to steep terrain.

The road on the pass still lies buried under snow 15-foot thick.

During the closure of the pass, people of the district travelled to and from other parts of the country through the Kunar-Nawa Pass via Afghanistan under an agreement with the Afghan government signed last year.

Inclement weather has also affected PIA’s flights between Chitral and Peshawar. As a result of this, women, children and the sick, who could not travel the long and arduous road via Afghanistan, are the worst sufferers in this situation.