Outrage against Pakistan’s attempt to make Gilgit Baltistan as its 5th province

Oct 06, 2020

Muzaffarabad (Pakistan occupied Kashmir), October 06 (ANI): Anger is mounting high in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan against Islamabad’s attempt to change the political status of the occupied region. Recently, Pakistan’s minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, Ali Amin Gandapur, reignited the contentious issue of grant of provincial status to Gilgit Baltistan. He also revealed about the commencement of work on Moqpondass Special Economic Zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This is fuelled resentment among the people of occupied PoK and Gilgit Baltistan. Gilgit-Baltistan, earlier known as Northern Areas has been governed by “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order of 2009”, that established an electoral framework. Elections have been held in the region under the Order that provides for only limited autonomy. The sudden announcement of the inclusion of Gilgit-Baltistan as the fifth province of Pakistan and underlying reasons for the same are much wider and its implications are bound to set the tone for exacerbating tensions, that is already being played out in the east along the LAC on Indo-China border. Located on a strategic location, Gilgit Baltistan has a large landmass and covers an area of over 70 thousand km. The Area has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan along with a part of Kashmir that lies to its South. But the most important geographical aspect of the region is the Shaksgam tract, a small region along the northeastern border of Gilgit–Baltistan that has been provisionally ceded by Pakistan to the People’s Republic of China in 1963 and now forms part of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The people of the region have been protesting against the denial of fundamental rights and policies of successive Pakistani governments. They see an onslaught of Pakistani cultural practices, erosion of their cultural values and loss of their land due to Pakistan’s plans to build five mega-dams with Chinese assistance, in the hydrographically rich area, which the locals assert is in violation of the resolutions adopted by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP).