This study examines the trend of the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic in Pakistan and to explore the community perception of the socioeconomic impact of COVID‐19 pandemic in a rural mountain area of Pakistan. An online survey was conducted through snowball sampling technique and total 367 people participated in the survey. The results of the study show that COVID‐19 cases spiked amid ease of lockdown in the country and the spread of novel coronavirus pandemic has significant socioeconomic impact on the lives of mountain communities in Gilgit‐Baltistan. Financial uncertainty, decrease in income, fear of job loss, and food insecurity are some major challenges that mountain communities face due to outbreak of coronavirus in the region. The results further show that lack of community cooperation with government agencies, lack of awareness about the severity of coronavirus, and insufficient COVID‐19 testing kits are the major factors that caused the spread of coronavirus cases. This study suggests that the short‐, medium‐, and long‐term policies are required to mitigate the consequences of this pandemic and to revitalize the mountain economy of Gilgit‐Baltistan, and in this regard, this study provides baseline information for policy‐makers and practitioners to devise such demanding policies.

Understanding the antecedents of the entrepreneurial intentions is vital in development of entrepreneurship in a region. Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the important elements of local economic development which can be used to address the issues of poverty and scarcity of livelihood opportunities in rural areas of the world. This study investigates the influence of social capital on entrepreneurial intentions in rural area of Pakistan. For this purpose, a representative sample of 325 respondents has been selected from rural community in Gilgit-Baltistan. The constructed model has been estimated using the partial least square method and the results show that social capital has significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions by forming perceived desirability, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived social norms towards entrepreneurship. This study recommends rural community of Pakistan should be given awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship opportunities and such awareness programs have unique advantages to various segments of rural community. Women, unemployed individuals, and younger generations in particular may get the maximum benefits as people in mountainous regions have already limited earning options. In such a case, developing entrepreneurial intentions of the mountain community in Gilgit-Baltistan leads to understandings of benefits of initiating their own ventures, get economic advantages, and contribute to households’ income.