My Story

Intro

The Northern Areas of Pakistan are mountainous and life is really difficult in terms of access to basic amenities of life. The region is also heterogeneous in terms of cultures, religions and races. Sectarian violence is a major hurdle in the way of collective progress. Noor Muhammad started a new intiative to empower the people of the region by utilizating available information and communication technology for promoting social consciousness and ideas pertaining to rights and roles of citizens in a society.

About Me

I was born and raised in a village called Gulmit - Gojal, located in Hunza valley near the border of Pakistan and China. I studied in my village school till grade 8 and then moved towards a nearby city called Gilgit, joining the best school of the region. I stayed at a hostel in the city and having completed 12 grades, moved to a bigger city, called Karachi. I studied business administration for four years at a university called SZABIST, counted among the best business schools of Pakistan. I specialized in marketing and communication.

I am fond of photography and I am also a poet, writing in three languages, i.e. Urdu, English and Wakhi (my mother tongue). I also have been writing articles and opinion pieces for Urdu and English newspapers and magazines published from different parts of Pakistan.

My Venture

During my studies at the university we came up with the idea of creating a regional news blog. We named it Pamir Times, based on survey findings.

Our major product is Pamir Times Blog, an English language blog. We are also in the process of launching an Urdu language blog. We started Pamir Times because we felt that the mainstream media wasn't doing justice to the region. They were negligent, lacking capacity,at best, or distorting facts, at worst. In this scenario the need for creation of a social space where citizens themselves report news and share views felt logical.

The blog has transformed the way people shared information in the mountainous region by providing consistent updates on events taking place in the region. Our blog pioneered citizen journalism and starting from two people belonging to a village, has now grown into a regional online news and views source with over 25 reporters from all major districts of the region.

We have also launched the first citizen journalism organization of Gilgit – Baltistan, called Pamir Media Services. Our team has grown from two people to over thirty volunteers who report news, write articles and share photographs through the blog. The blog has been visited over 700, 000 times, so far. We have approved over 10, 000 comments on the blog, making it a very interactive and lively news medium.

I am chief editor of the blog and in this position I am responsible for content editing, content coordination and content generation for the blog.