Rapid melting of glaciers worries GB lawmakers

E-Paper | March 16, 2026

GILGIT: Members on both treasury and opposition benches in the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly have expressed concern over rapid melting of glaciers and called upon the federal government to take measures for mitigating its impact so that environmental disasters in the region could be avoided.

Changing weather patterns are adversely affecting lives of people living along the Indus River.

Through an adjournment motion moved by Pakistan Peoples Party member Imran Nadeem Shigri on Friday, the assembly urged the prime minister to increase funding for GB so that it could be able to establish protective walls along rivers which would help in preventing land erosion from floods.

“Glaciers in the region are melting speedily,” Mr Shigri said.

The lawmaker called for providing information to the assembly about measures the government had so far taken to deal with environmental degradation.

He said more floods were expected this year in the region due to the climate change, adding that they would affect people living near rivers and along canals.

Deputy Speaker Jaffarullah Khan said that because of the changing weather patterns, less amounts of snowfall and rainfall were recorded in GB this year, adding that massive deforestation was the main cause of floods.

“Millions of cubic feet of wood are being cut illegally in GB annually and no action has been taken against people involved in this illegal practice,” the deputy speaker said.

Opposition member Kacho Imtiaz Haider alleged that funds allocated for plantation of trees had been embezzled by the department concerned.

Information Minister Iqbal Hassan admitted that the GB government had not done much in this regard.

PTI member Raja Jahanzeb Khan said global warming was an international problem. He held developed countries major responsible for global warming and said developing countries were the victims of it.

He said electricity and natural gas should be provided to GB residents so that cutting of trees could be stopped in the region.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2018

Pakistan

Jamil Nagri is a Gilgit-Baltistan-based correspondent for Dawn with over a decade of experience in journalism. His reporting and feature writing focus on CPEC, climate change, the environment, and adventure tourism. He can be found on X at @jamilnagri.

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farooq shaikh

Mar 11, 2018 07:14pm

I do appreciate the concerns shown by the law makers.The main question is why they feel themselves so helpless and apologetic in pursuing the quest to save environment. Why not they take bold step confidently. All government functionaries are working and reporting to them. These lawmakers are not working for these functionaries. Or they are trying to sow the seeds for some incoming schemes to be financed by overseas organisations as loans and looking forward to those loans to share. They can kill the menace of timber mafia as it is killed in KPK. Only a will on the part of lawmakers is required.

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