Thank u soo much for a detailed reply..
Yes we plan to go to Muzaffarabad initially, if all goes well..Inshallah... I have seen pictures of Neelum valley, and its breathtakingly beautiful... I am very much tempted to go there..but as someone said here, its still 6 hours drive from Muzaffarabad...so lets see, what others will have to say abt it...if they are interested to go there..but I will personally be more than excited to go there... Hopefully we will go there...
Actually I am going there with my khaala's family.. Our initial plan was to go to Khaanaspur and Nathiagali..but it was I who floated the idea of going to Azad Kashmir, since none of us have been there before, and have seen its pictures.. So most of others, like Khaaloo and my cousins, they are very excited to go there, to Azad Kashmir, but mu Khaala is just a bit nervous abt going there... But I am hopeful, opinion of majority will prevail and Inshallah we will be going there
@bold.. Oh really? It has such a good literacy rate?... Woww...Thts really good..
At the risk of possibly going off topic but yes it is true - Azad Kashmir has the highest literacy rate in Pakistan and same is true across the LOC. Read this article by the late khalid Hasan ( also a refugee from the Valley ) in Daily Times.
Literacy rate in Azad Jammu and Kashmir soars to 78 percent, leaves the rest of Pakistan behind
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The high literacy rate in Azad Kashmir, unlike that in Pakistan, where it is only 45 percent, has been attributed in part to the area’s “egalitarian” social structure compared with its “quasi-feudal” counterparts found in Pakistan.
According to a new report on Kashmir, issued by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and partly covered by this space on Sunday, the literacy rate in
Azad Kashmir is 61 percent, compared with 45 percent in Pakistan. However, according to Ijaz Nabi, a senior World Bank economist who was present at the release of the report authored by Teresita Schaffer, the literacy rate in Azad Kashmir is actually
78 percent. Primary school enrolment is 80 percent for boys and 74 percent for girls. However, enrolment rates for higher education are seen to drop sharply, with only 33 percent of boys attending high school and 19 percent of girls doing that. The quality of primary education leaves much to be desired because of lack of facilities and trained teachers. There are few private schools, especially for girls.
The report – Kashmir: the economics of peace-building – says the devastation caused by the October earthquake at AJK schools has been “particularly heartrending”. There are more women than men in Azad Kashmir, especially in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad districts where they outnumber men: 104 and 106 respectively to 100 men. The report points out that AJK is not a prosperous area, the annual per capita income being $184, just 40 percent of the figure for Pakistan. Thirty-eight percent of the population is malnourished and, according to one survey, 35 percent of the population is infected with diarrhoea or dysentery. Only 35 percent of Azad Kashmiris have access to clean drinking water. The unemployment rate is between 25 and 50 percent of the economically active population, with Mirpur having the lowest figure at 25.5 percent and Sudhonoti the highest at 52.3 percent. The report finds these figures “staggeringly high, compared with Pakistan where the highest rate is 14 percent (in the NWFP). AJK is heavily dependent on remittances from abroad, which results in poverty levels going up or down depending on the economic conditions in the country from where remittances are sent.”
The report found the quality of medial care in AJK “poor”. In 2002, there were about 1,500 hospital beds, a ratio of about 2,000 persons per bed. The number of people per physician is about 6,000, about four times the comparable figure for Pakistan. The area around Mirpur has for long been a recruiting ground for the Pakistan Army, while other young men go abroad in search of employment. One estimate indicates that 44 percent of non-farm income – or 13.2 percent of all AJK income – comes through remittances. The 1998 census placed the total population of AJK at 2.9 million with an estimated growth rate of 2.3 percent annually. The average population density in 219 persons per square km. Eighty-eight percent of the population is rural and overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture, though the land is not particularly fertile. Seasonal migration to Pakistan is common. Nearly 47 percent of the urban population is located in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad. In urban areas, about 41 percent of the labour force is self-employed, with 28 percent in government service and 22 percent in private employment. Some 59 percent of urban homes have a direct connection to piped water, compared with 25 percent in rural areas.
The report points out that AJK has the potential to generate 5,000 MW of hydroelectric power. The expansion of the Mangla Dam, which produces 1,000 MW of power, at a cost of Rs 62 billion is the only major dam-building project currently in hand, but several others are on the drawing board, all of them “bitterly controversial”. The raising of the Mangla Dam by 30 feet will submerge an additional 15,780 acres of land and displace 44,000 people from 8,000 homes. Each displaced family will be paid Rs 300,000 plus 110 percent of the market value of the house it has lost. A new city and smaller towns are also to be built. According to the report, “This follows the pattern established during the building of the original dam, but memories over mishandling of the earlier compensation package are still vivid.” The expansion is due to be completed in 2007.
According to the CSIS report, funded by Kashmiri-American millionaire Farooq Kathwari, “The people who have benefited most from the current situation in AJK are those who have risen to the top on the local political scene. A Kashmir settlement that resulted in AJK’s full integration into Pakistan – regardless of how the rest of Kashmir was dealt with – would certainly leave them with less of a claim to local power. Entrepreneurs who have made money facilitating movements of militants are also ‘winners’ under the current set up. On the other hand, a more normal relationship across the Line of Control, even if it stopped short of a full settlement, would open up opportunities for entrepreneurs from both AJK and Pakistan, through expanded trade and tourism. Refugees and displaced people would also be major beneficiaries of an easing of tensions, especially if it led to a revival of the economy and the opportunity for private-sector employment. A final group would gain from normalisation of economic and social relations, and even more from a peace settlement: divided families.”
Referring to the newly-begun bus service between the two Kashmirs, the report says, “Kashmiris are only beginning to think about how much more gratifying a broader array of contacts would be. This suggests that the time is ripe for the kinds of economic initiatives set forth in this report – and hopefully for moving beyond them to a genuine settlement.”
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
And quote
"Kashmiris are a politically conscious people with overall literacy rate far higher than that of India and Pakistan"
FDL - AP Archives: "Advantages of Independent Jammu-Kashmir"
And tell your Khaala she will be safer in Muzzafarabad than in Karachi. Yes, because the roads are so twisty and the continous up a hill and down a hill even small distances can take hours. Yes, I would strongly suggest like AKS said that you go to Neelum Valley. You don't have to go along the entire length.
i have plans to visit neelum valley next year 
in july i am going to khunjerab pass Pak china border 
