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| September 25, 2006 | Monday | Ramazan 1, 1427 |
Sust Dry Port crisis deepens
KARIMABAD, (Hunza): A grand meeting of notables, public representatives, political leaders, lawyers and social activists on Sunday expressed concern over what they called large-scale corruption and mismanagement in the Sust Dry Port Trust that has put in jeopardy the economic interests of the poor people of Hunza and the future of the port.
They came down heavily on the management of the Silk Route Port Company for the mess-up in the important project that was launched in 1999 under an agreement between China and Pakistan to facilitate barter trade, especially between Xinjiang province and Gilgit-Baltistan.
They said that two groups of officials in the port management were creating disharmony among the local communities at the behest of ‘hidden hands’ and with the financial support of a powerful smuggling mafia to disrupt the trade link between Pakistan and China and to create a Gwadar-like situation in the peaceful valley of Hunza.
The meeting, called by the Aga Khan Regional Council, formed a 42-member committee comprising notables, local bodies representatives, lawyers and political leaders to resolve the crisis and safeguard the interest of the common people.
Those who attended the meeting were Ghulam Rasul, Shah Gul Aziz, Waiz Ghulam Murtaza, Numberdar Shanawar, former presidents of AKRC Ghulam Mohammad and Jahangir Khan, Gilgit District PPP vice-president Ghulam Mohammad, Bloristan Labour Party chairman Ehsan Ali, Bolor Research Forum’s Sultan Madad and Amanullah, AKRC president Dr Khawaj Khan, Tawasul Shah, Fida Karim, Baba Jan and UC members.
The committee will visit Sust on Sept 27 to meet the shareholders and land owners and strive to remove their misunderstandings, unite them against the corrupt elements and seek their consent to ask the Registrar of Societies to audit the accounts of the trust, recover the looted money of small shareholders, hold a general body meeting of the trust to elect a new board of directors.
The Sust Dry Port management crisis erupted on May 2 over the control of the management of the trust by the two rival groups one led by vice-cahirman Salim Khan, son of the Deputy Chief Executive of Northern Areas, Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan, and the other led by Gojal District Council member Raja Shahbaz Khan who is also a member of the family of former rulers of Hunza.
The crisis deepened when Salim Khan nominated Iman Shah, another ruling Muslim League vice-chairman of the Gilgit District Council as deputy managing director, administrator and member of the board of trustees despite the fact that the latter has no share in the trust by expelling Raja Shahbaz Khan, Sanjar Baig, Hur Shah and Mirza Hassan, Burhan Shah and Resham Baig. The two rival groups traded charges of corruption and misappropriation of millions of rupees.
The crisis heightened last week when district council members Iman Shah and Raja Shabaz Khan were arrested by the local police for creating a law and order situation in the sensitive port area but they were released on the intervention of a senior officer of a sensitive agency and the police chief of Northern Areas on September 22.
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