THERE is hardly any day when Sardar Masood Khan, the President of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir, is not engaged in addressing the various forums, think tanks at national and international levels and highlighting the Kashmir issue.

Recently in Vienna , the president focused on Azad Kashmir and declared it a most peaceful state, a popular tourist destination and a high educational scorer.

Although AJK has a very attractive landscape, it lacks basic facilities due to which tourism is not proportionate to the scenic beauty of the land. The road infrastructure at many places is bad.

The Mang Bajri (Bagh) landslide is a glaring case in point where just a few days back a car met with an accident , killing one person and injuring four, but none from government quarters carried out risk assessment to avoid further incidents.

This road is a main artery linking Bagh and Poonch districts with Rawalpindi and Muzaffarabad with a heavy volume of traffic day and night .

In the Union Council of Bheid (Haveli district), where 40,000 people reside, there is no doctor for people living just close to the Line of Control. The area gets average snowfall of about 20 feet a year and remains isolated for two to three months due to heavy snow at Haji Pir Pass.

Maj (r) Mahmood Abbasi
Ghaziabad (AK)

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018