‘From a Donkey Ride to a Voyage in the Orient Skyliner.’ This is a quote from Baltistan Minister Farman Ali’s book, who has been a federal level bureaucrat.
In his English autobiography, which was published posthumously, he described his long struggle as a common man from Baltistan went through various stages of success and retired from the post of Federal Joint Secretary.
While the title of his book on the one hand tells his own personal story, on the other hand it is actually an allegorical expression of the means of transportation in Baltistan.
I am trying to narrate the history of travel facilities in Skardu-Baltistan and particularly the story of arrival of ships by using the same title sentence as the title.
Before the creation of Pakistan, the Baltistan region was connected to British India, Kashmir, Tibet and Chinese Turkestan through various passes and passes.
In summer, when the snow melts, one would go south of Skardu via Barzal Pass via Deosai, go to Srinagar after Turagbul Pass and from there the route would be taken to the next destinations.
The other was traveling along the banks of the Indus River and the Kargil River through Kargil and Zojila Pass to Srinagar and other areas via Kharmang.
The third route is via Peon village beyond Nagim and then Ladakh via Churbat Pass and then East Turkestan via Karakoram Pass.
Beyond Nawam there was Farano village, then Taqshi, Turtak, Cholonkha and Khari Dong Pass to Nubra Ladakh.
Two routes from Sugar have been popular, one via Biafo Hesper Glacier to Nagar Hunza and onward to Turkestan.
While the second one is ahead of Balatro region, after Makari Pass, Aghiel Pass and Khatan and then Yarkand. From Skardu, a difficult journey led west through the Rondo Valley to Gilgit, where the truck road has now become.
All these routes were traveled on foot and by horses, but Messrs. Spandig Company had built a carriage route from Srinagar to Gilgit over the Barzal Pass.
Thus, the first motor reached Astor and Gilgit in 1930 through this route.
On the other hand, a small vehicle road was constructed from Skardu to Gilgit in 1965, while the Karakoram Highway was completed in 1978 under a joint Pakistan-China project.
The route from Nagypeon to Chhorbat Pass and beyond Cholonkha to Nubra Ladakh was definitely difficult on foot, but the route to Shagar Makari Pass and Biafo Hesper was extremely difficult, consisting of difficult icy ravines and glaciers, which were dangerous to travel on. It was not less.
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But it is a fact that the plane arrived in Baltistan before the jeep, and people here were familiar with plane seats before car seats.
Air travel was attempted a year and a half ago in 1948 when the occupying Dogra government started construction of an earthen airfield in the sandy plain west of Skardu.
This is where the Army Aviation base is today. But when the war of independence began, the Dogars realized that the territory was slipping away from them, so they covered the crude airport with trees and stones.
Muhammad Ali worked as a PI for 35 years and retired as a manager of the airport. He is unique for his extensive study and analytical thinking and is popularly known as ‘Muhammad Ali PIA’.
When I discussed with him about the start of air travel in Skardu and the various administrative arrangements made for it, he gave me interesting information.
From 1949 to 1964-65, the Dakota aircraft landed at the same airfield, the construction of which was started during the Dogra regime and was incomplete.
Later, in the same place, the government of Pakistan had prepared a landing strip made of clay and gravel, on which the Dakota aircraft began to land. The Dakota was a small 25-seater aircraft, so the first air travel began under the name Orient Airways.
Initially the fare was Rs 25 per person and Dakota planes landed at Skardu airport several times a day carrying mostly food items and sacks of wheat.
Since the Skardu-Gilgit road was not constructed till 1965, the transportation facility and freight for the Baltistan region was by ship.
Dakota is an acronym for Douglas Aircraft Company and Transport Aircraft. This aircraft was used extensively by the Allied forces in World War II.
1986 First photo of a Boeing aircraft landing at Skardu Airport (PIA)
From 1965 to 1986, the Fokker replaced the Dakota aircraft for Skardu. Fokker is named after ‘Anthony Fokker’, a Dutch master shipbuilder.
It was a forty-seater aircraft and the initial fare for Skardu was Rs.75.
Ghulam Nabi Sahib has been Deputy Commissioner Skardu. In the early days of the service, he was a Public Relations Officer, during which he was the Political Agent of Baltistan from 1964 to 1966 under Gul Afridi. Banat Gul Afridi has done great services for Baltistan.
Among his other services, he has been instrumental in regularizing the Fokker aircraft at Skardu. Some black and white photographs taken by Ghulam Nabi Sahib as a Public Relations Officer were found by his elder son Ashfaq Ahmed.
According to the captions given in these pictures, Binat Gul Afridi is negotiating with the shopkeepers of Skardu and PIA officials on how to arrange to bring goods in Fokker aircraft at discounted rates.
The talks were to be held at the current DC House Hamidgarh where the Political Agent’s office was earlier.
At that time there was a dirt road from the airport to Skardu and there was no public or private transport.
Those who wanted to go to Islamabad by plane used to walk early in the morning and reach the airport. Mules and horses were used to bring the goods that came by Fokker ship to the city.
From June 1986, Boeing started weekly flights and from September 1987, regular flights started. At that time the fare of Boeing was 205 rupees.
In the beginning when the flights started in the name of Orient Airways, Wazir Faiz in Skardu was the manager of Skardu station who belonged to Rondo.
He was also accompanied by Mohammad Jafar who was the father of our classmate Colonel Qasim.
Mohammad Jafar Sahib became the administrator after Wazir Faiz and held this responsibility till 1993. The story of his struggle and hard work till he came out of his home and became the manager of PIA Skardu station has been captured in a video by our friend Afzal Manduq.
Mohammad Jafar sahib also played a role as an organizer in the Baltistan War of Independence in delivering rations to the Mujahideen. In this video, the late Jafar Sahib narrates the very interesting story of the arrival and departure of various ships in Skardu.
He says that in the beginning, when the Dakota and Fokker planes landed, the airfield would be covered with dust and after a long time the doors would be opened and the passengers would be sent out, because the airstrip was made of dirt.
He says that the initial flights were from Peshawar Airport to Skardu and all the pilots were of Polish and British origin and there were five to ten flights a day.
He narrated an interesting story that in the beginning, passengers’ luggage was not properly weighed, so often the shopkeepers used to wear two or three coats and vests while coming from Rawalpindi to Skardu by plane and stuffing different items in their pockets. They used to become kappas and thus deliver their goods to Skardu for free.
Although the pilots knew it, they smiled and ignored it.
Another interesting thing he told was that there was no regular scale for weighing at Skardu airport, there was a big scale where a man or a woman, an officer or a religious scholar weighed the scales according to their own style. They used to be hung on one side and the bats were placed on the other side.
It was a big joke, but it was a compulsion and it had to be done like that. He also recounted stories of snow removal from the airstrip using traditional methods that took several days.
Air travel improved with time and Airbus also reached Skardu and now international flights are also starting regularly in the same month.
Famous mountaineering teams have also come to Skardo via Dakota, Fokker and Boeing aircraft, including the famous Italian mountaineering team that made the first toe summit in 1954.
Photos and videos of the plane’s flight, landing, and landing by one of the team’s photographers are still available on the Internet today.
