Cherry Blossoms in Gilgit Baltistan? Non-native but somehow culturally representative of GB?

What’s up with the Japanese cherry blossoms in GB? In places like Skardu. I have tried to search online for their origin, and it seems like while a few species of cherry and apricot trees are actually planted for their fruit, these Japanese cherry blossoms that are all over the place up there are solely for aesthetics, but still planted en masse despite them not even being native. But I couldn’t find anything concrete about how they got there. How long they’ve been there, and who brought them there. Just that they are all imported solely for decoration. That’s not very ecologically responsible, is it?

It’s very strange in my opinion but maybe I am missing something? I follow a lot of Pakistani photographers and everyone seems so proud of this sight in our northern areas. But we are essentially trying to imitate Japan, and I just think it’s so strange for a Pakistani to be proud of a non-native Japanese tree being everywhere in one of their cities.