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customs duties and the perceived imbalance of cross-border trade. At the pass itself, occasional demonstrations flare over taxation and representation. The message is consistent: the people of Gilgit- Baltistan live at the frontline of billion-dollar projects yet feel excluded from their benefits.
“ Here, we pay taxes,” Jamal said,“ but we have no representation in the
National Assembly. No senators, no seats. Tell me, is this democracy?”
He laughed, not bitterly, but with the resignation of a man who has asked the same question too many times.
To understand the weight of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, you have to grasp the significance of the river it seeks to tame. The Indus is not just a river; it is Pakistan’ s spine. Fed by glaciers from the Himalaya and Karakoram, it courses south through the length of the country, watering the Punjab and Sindh, sustaining farms, cities, and factories.
But it is also a river of contention. Pakistan and India share its waters under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, a Cold War-era agreement that has survived wars and near-wars. Any major new dam on the river
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