Peshawar is the Capital of North West
Frontier Province. The
valleys of the main streams and their tributaries exhibit similar feature
and consist of flat plains of alluvial soil in the centre, with a pebbly
slope of varying length rising on either sides of the mountains. It is
from these pebbly beds that the supply of water for irrigation is chiefly
obtained through Karezes. Zhob, Bloan and their tributaries have formed
two important alluvial basins of Balochistan, namely, the Lorlai basin and
Quetta basin, which together produce a major portion of Balochistan's
crops and fruits: wheat, barley, maize, lucerne, potato, apple, apricot,
peach,almond, grape and pomegranate. Kalat Plateau at 7,000-8,000 ft.
(2,135-2,440 m), in the centre of Balochistan is the most important
plateau.
The
largest desert is found in western Balochistan. This is an area of inland
drainage and dry lakes (hamuns), the largest of which is Hamun-i-Mashkhel,
which is 54 miles long and 22 miles wide. The surface is littered with
sun-cracked clay, oxidized pebbles, salty marshes and crescent-shaped
movisng sand dunes. The area is known particularly for its constant mirage
and sudden severe sand-storms. Being outside the sphere of monsoon
current, Balochistan receives scanty and irregular rainfall (4 inches);
the temperature is very high in summer and very low in winter.
Owing to continuous draught, there is very little vegetation. Most of the
people, therefore, lead nomadic life, raising camels, sheep and goats.
Balochistan is, however, fortunate to have considerable mineral wealth of
natural gas, coal, chromite, lead, sulphur and marble. The reserves of
natural gas at Sui are among the largest in the world. The gas is piped to
Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Faisalabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and
Quetta for use as industrial power.
The Karakoram Highway
The Karakoram Highway, or KKH, is the greatest wonder of modern Pakistan and
one of the most spectacular roads in the world. Connecting Pakistan to China, it
twists through three great mountain ranges - the Himalaya, Karakoram and Pamir -
following one of the ancient silk routes along the valleys of the Indus, Gilgit
and Hunza rivers to the Chinese border at the Khunjerab Pass. It then crosses
the high Central Asian plateau before winding down through the Pamirs to Kashgar,
at the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert. By this route, Chinese silks,
ceramics, lacquer-work, bronze, iron, furs and spices travelled West, while the
wool, linen, ivory, gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones, asbestos
and glass of South Asia and the West travelled East.
For much of its 1,284 kms (905 miles), the Karakoram Highway is overshadowed by
towering, barren mountains, a high altitude desert enjoying less than 100
millimeters (four inches) of rain a year. In many of the gorges through which it
passes, it rides a shelf cut into a sheer cliff face as high as 500 meters
(1,600 feet) above the river. The KKH has opened up remote villages where little
has changed in hundreds of years, where farmers irrigate tiny terraces to grow
small patches of wheat, barely or maize that stand out like emeralds against the
grey, stony mountains. The highway is an incredible feat of engineering and an
enduring monuments to the 810 Pakistanis and 82 Chinese who died forcing it
through what is probably the world's most difficult and unstable terrain. (The
unofficial death toll is somewhat higher, coming to nearly one life for each
kilometre of road).
