A Trip to Sost Dry Port Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan

I am in Sost, Hunza. I am trying to understand why I am here. There are two theories. 

First, I was planning to see Autumn in Hunza this winter. 

I am also here to help a cousin. He recently started working in the Sost dry port. Sost is the only dry port between Pakistan and China at Khunjarab. There are two dry ports. One is for baggage and small vehicles, and the other is for everything else, and it sees transits, freight, and cargo. It is interesting to see and know that Sost dry port is the bloodline for the economy of Hunza-Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, and beyond. 

Sost and its inhabitants are blessed with a port, CPEC, natural ecology, and a shrine. Saint Baba Ghundi is buried in Chapurson, Sost. A parable I heard when I went there in 2019. It says that when Baba Ghundi first came to Chapurson from Afghanistan, people disliked him and his God-insanity.  He prayed for a punishment, and God sent a flood that hit the valley and drowned people. The parable is proven based on the evidence one can see while traveling to the Shrine of Baba Ghundi from Sost. On the way, small sand stakes were there after the flood hit the valley. 

Apart from these blessings, people are materially deprived. On this trip, I saw a different Sost. This time, it is winter, and people are crazy.  The temperature is -1 or -2 Celsius. It was raining and snowing all day. People from Gilgit-Baltistan, China, and Pakistan are here to enjoy the blessings of free trade.  

It is good to meet friends. These guys are the soldiers in the trade frontier between China and the rest of the world. 


Nayyar Abbas's passion is writing. He earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science and a master's in Development Studies in Peace and Conflict. He writes about economics, politics, religion, philosophy, and peace. His aim is to highlight classical liberal ideas of economics, politics, and identity changes in a fast-transforming world.

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