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CHITRAL: Every winter the severe weather conditions and limited employment opportunities force the unskilled workers and labourers of Chitral to go to other parts of the country for work to earn their livelihood.
Talking to this correspondent here on Friday, several villagers of upper Chitral said that most of the male members of their families had gone to other cities, including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi, where they had been working as daily wagers on construction sites or selling Chitrali products.They said that all these people would return by the end of spring season in April.
Former councillor Shamsher Khan said that all the construction activities in Chitral come to a standstill in winter season and the labourers were left with no option but to go to the down country for earning livelihood. He said that according to a survey carried out by an NGO in 2008, over 85 per cent of the labour force shifted to other districts in winter.
“Three of my four sons go to Rawalpindi every year where they work as mason and earn about Rs800 a day each,” said Adam Khan of Kosht village. He said that all his sons would return by the end of April when the farming activities would start here.
He said that they also took the unemployed youth of the village with them and leave the village in October. He said that the labourers worked for extra hours to augment their savings.
Mohammad Islam from Torkhow said that the builders preferred the labourers of Chitral to those from other areas due to their habit of hard work.
Besides, hundreds of people sell Chitrali caps and other such products on the roads and streets of Peshawar and Islamabad and many others work in shops, bakeries and stores.
