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The Northern Areas (i-administered Kashmir . The area west of the Indus River was known as the Gilgit Agency until October 1947 . HISTORY After the partition of India in 1947, Jammu And Kashmir remained an independent state. Tribals from Pakistan invaded Kashmir and were backed by regular Pakistani troops. Fearing the might of Pakistani Forces, Kashmir sought military help from India and, in return, the Maharaja agreed to accede to India. India accepted this, and the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947 was fought to send Pakistani forces back. However, the war was not decisive and a cease-fire was called in 1948. The end of the war saw India gaining most of Kashmir, including the fertile parts of it, with Pakistan securing the northern and western parts of Kashmir. The part of Kashmir to the north and west of the cease-fire line or the Line Of Control , known as the Northern Areas (72,496 km&2) in the north and Azad Jammu And Kashmir (13,297 km&2) in the south, is controlled by Pakistan. The name "Northern Areas" was first used by the United Nations to refer to the northern areas of Kashmir. A small part of the Northern Areas, the Trans-Karakoram Tract , was ceded to the People's Republic Of China by Pakistan in 1963. SUBDIVISIONS The Northern Areas is divided into six districts1 in three divisions: the two Baltistan districts of Skardu and Ghanche , and four Gilgit districts of Gilgit , Ghizer , Diamer and Astore . The main political centres are the towns of Gilgit and Skardu . GEOGRAPHY The Northern Areas borders the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the Xinjiang autonomous region of China to the northeast, the Indian state of Jammu And Kashmir to the southeast, the Pakistan i-administered state of Azad Jammu And Kashmir to the southeast and the North-West Frontier Province to the west. The region is home to some of the world's Highest Mountain ranges — the main ranges are the Karakoram and the western Himalaya s. The Pamir mountains are to the north, and the Hindu Kush lies to the west. Amongst the highest mountains are Godwin-Austen and Nanga Parbat , one of the most feared mountains in the world. CLIMATE The climate of the Northern Areas varies from region to region. There are towns like Gilgit and Chilas that are very hot during the day in summers, yet cold at nights, and valleys like Astore , Khaplu , Yasin , Hunza , and Nagar where the temperatures are cold even in summers. SPORTS Polo is the favourite game of the people of Gilgit ,Chilas, Astore, Hunza and surrounding area.People are very fond of this game. Every year a great number of tourists come from all over the country and enjoy the polo in the Northern Areas. Others games such as cricket, gulli danda, kabadi,volley ball are also played here. SITES OF INTEREST The Northern Areas is a major destination for foreign tourists especially for serious mountaineers because it is home to five of the Eight-thousander s and more than fifty peaks above 7000m. Gilgit and Skardu are the two main hubs for all expeditions to these mountains. Glaciers as seen from Concordia ]] , Skardu , in 2002 ]] Three of the world's seven longest glaciers outside the polar regions are also in the Northern Areas, the Biafo Glacier , the Baltoro Glacier , and the Batura Glacier . Mountains Eighteen of the Fifty Hightest Peaks in the World are located in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.
Lakes There are several high altitude lakes in the ''Northern Areas''.
Deosai Plains The Deosai Plains , located above the tree line, are the second-highest plains in the world at 4,115 m (13,500 feet). They lie south of Skardu and east of the Astore Valley . The area was declared to be a National Park in 1993 . The Deosai Plains cover an area of almost 3,000 square kilometers. For just over half the year (between November and May), Deosai is snow-bound. Rock art and petroglyphs near Chilas ]] There are more than 20,000 pieces of rock art and Petroglyph s all along the Karakoram Highway in the Northern Areas , that are concentrated at ten major sites between Hunza and Shatial . The carvings were left by various invaders, traders, and Pilgrims who passed along the trade route, as well as by locals. The earliest date back to between 5000 and 1000 BC , showing single animals, triangular men and hunting scenes in which the animals are larger than the hunters. These Carvings were pecked into the rock with stone tools and are covered with a thick Patina that proves their age. The archaeologist Karl Jettmar has pieced together the history of the area from various inscriptions and recorded his findings in ''Rock Carvings and Inscriptions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan'' and the later released ''Between Gandhara and the Silk Roads - Rock Carvings Along the Karakoram Highway''. TRANSPORTATION Road transport Until 1978, Northern Areas was cut off from rest of Pakistan due to harsh terrain and lack of accessible roads. All roads opened towards J&K and in the east towards Ladakh. During the summers, people would walk across the mountain passes to travel to Rawalpindi. Fastest way of travel was by air and was accessible to only few previliged locals, and majority of Pakistani armed and civilian officials. Then with the co-operation of Chinese government, Pakistan planned to construct Karakoram Highway (KKH) which was completed in 1978. The Karakoram Highway (KKH) connects Islamabad to Gilgit and Skardu , which are the two major hubs for mountaineering expeditions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan . The journey from Islamabad to Gilgit takes approximately 20-24 hours. Landslides on Karakoram Highway are very common. KKH connects Gilgit to Taxkorgan and Kaxgar in Xinjiang , China via Sust (the customs and health inspection post on Pakistan side) and the Khunjerab Pass , the highest paved international border crossing in the world at 4,693 metres (15,397 feet). NATCO (Northern Areas Transport Corporation) offers bus and jeep transport service to the two hubs and several other popular destinations, lakes, and glaciers in the area. Commuter service between Gilgit and Kashgar ]] In March 2006, the respective governments announced that, commencing on June 1, 2006 , a thrice weekly bus service would begin across the boundary from Gilgit , Northern Areas to Kashgar , China and road widening work would begin on 600 kilometres of the Karakoram Highway. There would also be one daily bus in each direction between the Sust and Taxkorgan border areas of the two countries. 2 Air transport Pakistan International Airlines used to fly a Fokker F27 daily between Gilgit Airport and Islamabad International Airport . The flying time is approximately 50 minutes, and the flight is one of the most scenic flights in the world, as its route passes over Nanga Parbat , and the peak of the mountain is higher than the aircraft's cruising altitude. PIA also offers regular flights of Boeing 737 between Skardu and Islamabad . However, the Fokker F27 was retired after the crash at Multan in 2006. Currently flights are being operated by PIA to Gilgit on the brand new ATR42-500 aircrafts purchased in 2006. Due to this the cancellation of flights is much less than in the Fokker days. All flights, however, are subject to weather clearance, and in winters, flights are often delayed by several days. DEMOGRAPHICS The population consists of many diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious groups due in part to the many isolated valleys separated by some of the world's highest mountains. Urdu is the Lingua Franca of the region, understood by most male inhabitants. The Shina Language (with several dialects) is the language of 40% of the population, spoken mainly in Gilgit, throughout Diamer, and some parts of Ghizer. The Balti Language , a sub-dialect of Ladakhi and part of Tibetan language group is spoken by the entire population of Baltistan. Minor languages spoken in the area include Wakhi spoken in upper Hunza, and some villages in Ghizer, while Khowar is the major language of Ghizer. Burushaski is an isolated language spoken in Hunza , Nagar , Yasin (where Khowar is also spoken), some parts of Gilgit and some villages of Punyal. Another interesting language is Domaaki , spoken by the musician clans of the region. A small minority also speaks Pashto . At the last census (1998), the population of the Northern Areas was 870,347. 3 Approximately 14% of the population was urban. 4 RECENT HISTORY The region used to consist of many small states ruled by hereditary ''Mirs'' (in Hunza and Nagar ) or ''Raas'' (in Gilgit ). Some parts of the region were invaded by Kashmir , and nominally the states were governed as a part of Kashmir for many years. Locally, this association with Kashmir is disputed by some who regard themselves as being distinct from Kashmiris, while others choosing to identify themselves as Kashmiris. There is also significant support for the region to become a Province of Pakistan, separate from Azad Jammu And Kashmir . The region's lack of representation in the Pakistani Parliament has placed it outside the mainstream politics of the country, and is a major cause of frustration among the local population. Unlike Azad Jammu And Kashmir , the Northern Areas is governed directly by Pakistan as a de facto colony. However, recently the Pakistan government has set up the Northern Areas Legislative Council to allow locals to choose their own representatives. {Link without Title} ANCIENT HISTORY text written in the Sarada script, from Gilgit.]] The southern route of the ancient Silk Road passes through the area, travelled by merchants from many far-off places who may have stopped here and intermarried with the locals. It had long been speculated that the relatively fair-skinned and, in places, light-haired people of the area were descendants of the Greeks who, beginning with the soldiers of Alexander The Great , and continuing into the Greco-Buddhist period, settled in the region (see Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek ). However, recent DNA analysis has failed to find any evidence of Greek ancestry. It is now thought that much of the population is descended from various Aboriginal peoples as well as the descendants of Indo-Iranian tribes and possibly from Tokharian -speaking Yuezhi people from Gansu , who ruled the region during the Kushan era. KASHMIR DISPUTE See Also: Indo-Pakistani Wars Azad Kashmir India does not recognise the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir as part of Pakistan and refers to them as " Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)". Pakistan 's position is to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir to determine the will of the people, according to the three resolutions of the UN Security Council and the United Nations Commission. The promised plebiscite however, has never been held in the region due to the failure of Pakistan to first pull back their troops and vacate their respective parts of Kashmir , which was the first precondition for the plebiscite to be held. Jammu and Kashmir was a , China fought a war with India and occupied the disputed northeastern part of the Kashmir region known as Aksai Chin , which India claims as an integral part of India. Ever since, a bitter enmity has developed between has demanded independence, expressing a desire to gain independence, but the group has very limited support among the residents of Northern Areas Balawaristan official page , many of them actually preferring the de-facto state being declared a proper province of Pakistan to empower the people. All this has resulted in a steep decline in tourism to the Northern Areas Tourism on the decline in Northern Areas By Shabbir Ahmed Mir The News, Pakistan, although it still is a favourite destination among European mountaineers. NATIONAL HONORS The people of Northern Areas are well renowned for their courage and valor. Hence, majority of the from Yasin, Northern Areas was awarded Pakistan's highest medal, Nishan-e-Haider for his courageous actions during the Kargil conflict. NOTES AND REFERENCES
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