Current affairs
Lifting the veil over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Northern Areas
PART 1: Lifting the veil
By Sultan Shahin, editor, NewAgeIslam.com
Azad Kashmir creates the impression of being fairly prosperous. Mirpur in particular appears to be quite a wealthy town. But the residents make an effort to point out that this prosperity is no thanks to Pakistani largess. Anyone who points to the grand houses admiringly is told the story behind its prosperity. What happened is that in the early 1950s, Pakistan decided to construct a dam on the river Jhelum to meet its electricity needs. Hundreds were displaced from the villages on the site of the dam. But they found work on the Mangla Dam. However, once the dam was constructed, they had nowhere to go. So many of them decided, encouraged by the British construction company for which they were working, to use the little money they had received as compensation for their land to buy tickets to go to England. Working as factory workers in the Midlands to begin with, they have now become quite prosperous. It is they, I was told, who have built these grand houses in Mirpur, more out of nostalgia than need.
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4:52 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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