CHITRAL: Senior minister for local government and rural development Inayatullah Khan has said Chitral will be the hub of business activities once it is connected to the Central Asian Republics and China through the CPEC.

He was addressing the concluding ceremony of Gobor festival here on Friday on the border village of Gobor.

The minister said CPEC would help exploit natural resources of the district to the benefit of the poverty-stricken people.

He deplored that no government in the past bothered to improve the road communication in Gobor valley which kept the area backward.

Mr Khan announced Rs20 million for construction of Gobor road, and also promised to include it in the annual development plan of next year.

He said that on the suggestion of the district nazim, the provincial government was launching development projects for earlier rehabilitation of the infrastructure devastated by the flash floods of last year.

He also promised to include the festival in the calendar events of the provincial government.

Earlier, district nazim Maghfirat Shah highlighted the initiatives of the district government for bringing the marginalised areas of the district at a par with the developed ones.

He said the areas like Gobor would get due share in the resources of the district government to provide basic amenities of life to people.

The organiser of the event, and member of district council from Garam Chashma, Mohammad Hussain, said the area was the most neglected one despite its multi-dimensional importance in trade, defence, culture and history.

He said Gobor Pass was used for one of the trade routes with Afghanistan from 1988 to 2002, giving hundreds of millions of rupees to the provincial government in octroi tax.

Competitions of traditional sports, including polo, horse race, mountain race and the non-local sports like football and cricket marked the conclusion of the event.

The traditional sport, buzz kasha was the chief event of the festival, which attracted a large number of people from every nook and corner of Chitral district, providing them with a chance of visiting this remote but picturesque picnic spot.

The Gobor Bakh village won the polo match by beating the Dighili village by 6 to 4 goals. Buzz kashi was won by Qasim of Gobor Bakh.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2016