Back in the upstream sanctuary of Passu, I acquainted myself with the local state of affairs, which became increasingly clear as being dire. What first baffled me was the inactivity – empty fields, no livestock, abandoned hotels, unemployed locals. Having just visited vibrant Pamiri villages in Tajikistan, nearly identical in their culture, landscape, climate, and resources, I struggled to reconcile this idleness.
What I discovered was a failed economic shift from subsistence to diversification. In the early 1980's, with the newly completed Karakoram Highway, tourism thrived in the Northern Areas, accompanied by unprecedented access to China and the rest of Pakistan. Locals opened guest houses, became trekking guides, and farmers began to plant cash crops like potatoes, electing to import their wheat, vegetables, and meat from Punjab. For a time, this transition delivered positive changes.
Following 9/11, tourism in Pakistan cratered, forcing much of the tourism industry to pursue alternatives. Seemingly half the locals I've met allude to their former occupations as tourist guides. The second blow came with the Hunza landslide in 2010, which has severed vehicular access to the upper Karakoram. This year's planting season has passed; tourism has all but ceased; there's no mutton, no wheat, no produce, and no petrol; government support has proven inept – the local economy has completely collapsed. Will Passu's current plight inspire lasting changes (e.g. a reversion to subsistence), or simply a perpetual struggle with isolation and embitterment?
A peripheral local industry is the maintenance of the Karakoram Highway, the responsibility for which primarily rests upon the Chinese, who befit the task considering their substantial investment in its original construction. Two years ago, the upper Karakoram boasted tarmac, but the Chinese are beginning anew, with visions of an expressway, and endeavor to reclaim the highway's rank as the world's 8th wonder. As at home, they approach their work with a dogged allegiance, and are culturally and economically insoluble with the local Pakistanis. The Chinese camps import their provisions (i.e. rice, noodles, wine, cigarettes, pornography), and export their earnings. But Pakistan's margin for grievance is limited since they lack the engineering expertise to tackle such an ambitious feat as the Karakoram. And for China, the motive is clear: to pave their way to the Arabian Sea.
