A BRADFORD GP is preparing to retrace his family’s100-year-old links to a breathtakingly beautiful area of northern Pakistan.

Dr Alistair Bavington, a senior partner at Kensington Partnership, Kensington Street Health Centre, Girlington, since 1996, was due to travel this weekend to Gilgit-Baltistan – where his grandparents worked for a Christian mission during the rule of the Indian Raj.

The territory of present-day Gilgit-Baltistan is the northernmost administrative territory in Pakistan and became a separate administrative unit in 1970 under the name Northern Areas.

In 2009, it was granted limited autonomy and renamed Gilgit-Baltistan.

“I was last in the region 24 years ago so it will be interesting to see any changes,” said Dr Bavington.

“I am going with my cousin and my two sons and will spend two-and-half weeks there hoping to retrace the steps of my grandparents and visit places they worked in and lived.”

Dr Bavington’s grandparents met in the region while working in missions, creating schools and hospitals.

His grandfather was originally from Watford and a plumber by trade before training in medical care. He ran a dispensary in an area known as Little Tibet in the 1920s and 30s.

His grandfather met his grandmother, who was originally from Switzerland, out there and they married and had a family.

After partition the couple left Pakistan with their family.

Later Dr Bavington’s father, Dr John Bavington, and uncle returned to work in Pakistan. His uncle ran a civil engineering firm while his father worked as a medical missionary, met his wife – Mary, from Scotland – and raised a family.

Dr Bavington, now 52, was born in Gilgit-Baltistan.

When his parents left the region in 1979 he came to the UK with them as a teenager.

He spoke fluent Urdu and settled in Bradford where his father worked as a consultant psychiatrist at Lynfield Mount Hospital until 1990.

“The only real link to Bradford was through my grandmother’s family who were fairly aristocratic in the textile industry in Switzerland and had visited Bradford on occasion,” said Dr Bavington.

"Being able to speak fluent Urdu has proved helpful for me to communicate with patients in the practice."

Also looking at returning is former Bradfordian and current honorary ambassador to Gilgit-Baltistan, Haroon Rashid.

In July Mr Rashid will be taking a delegation of businesspeople including representatives of the Aagrah Group of Restaurants who are wishing to open a hotel, restaurant and theme park in the region.

"I am very much looking forward to going in July with the delegation," said Mr Rashid, whose wife comes from the region.

"The area is breathtaking and part of the trek Dr Bavington is going on is in Fairy Meadows which is beautiful."

Today, unprecedented numbers of tourists are visiting Gilgit-Baltistan known for its trekking, mountain peaks, glaciers and waterfalls.

The area covers 28,164 square miles and has an estimated population of around 1,800,000.

It is home to five of the 'eight-thousanders' – 14 independent mountains on Earth which are more than 8,000 metres above sea level.

Three of the world's longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found there.