Time to Integrate Gilgit-Baltistan
By Noor Pamiri
Prime Minister Modi of India, in his Independence Day speech last year, said that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan had thanked him for raising their longstanding issues. He also accused the state of Pakistan of oppressing dissent in these regions. Many in the region felt that Modi’s statement about people of Gilgit-Baltistan thanking him was an innuendo aimed at the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This feeling was triggered by the constant anti-Pakistan rhetoric by the Modi administration, and the Indian government’s objections over the CPEC intervention.
The Indian Prime Minister knows very well that Gilgit-Baltistan, which Modi refers to as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, is the entry point for the much-hyped CPEC project. He also knows that the people of GB are not represented in the parliament and other national institutions of Pakistan. He seems to also be aware of the growing frustration of the educated youth, who feel that Pakistan has done them a grave disservice by denying them equal citizenship rights for the last seven decades.
After his speech, major Indian television channels and newspapers attempted to play up the dissent, creating an impression that Gilgit-Baltitsan’s 2.5 million people had risen up in arms against the state of Pakistan, and were looking up to Modi, who is also notoriously known as the Butcher of Gujrat, to save them from oppression and injustice.
These attempts of Modi and Indian media failed to amuse the people of GB, who responded by coming out in thousands on the streets to denounce and debunk the innuendos. The protesters also rallied for the liberation of the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
While the Indian Prime Minister should be called out for his bluffs, we also have to be cognizant of the elephant in the room.
The federal government continues ignoring two resolutions passed by the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, calling for constitutional integration of the region in Pakistan, and making it the country’s fifth province. A parliamentary committee formed to submit proposals for determining the political status of Gilgit-Baltistan, under the leadership of Sartaj Aziz, PM Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on foreign affairs, has been dragging the issue for almost two years, with loads of pomp, but without any show.
The stumbling block in the path of Gilgit-Baltistan’s integration is the perception that empowering and integrating Gilgit-Baltistan will somehow damage Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir. Pakistani policy makers officially maintain that GB is a part of Kashmir dispute and whenever the UN-mandated plebiscite is held to determine the status of the disputed region, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan will vote for Pakistan. Under this pretext, Gilgit-Baltistan has been kept dis-empowered for almost seven decades. This is despite the fact that the people of GB, then divided in small states and chiefdoms, had collectively fought a year-long war against the occupying Dogra forces in 1947–48, and rulers of all states had announced accession to the state of Pakistan.
Ironically, India has ‘temporarily integrated’ the parts of Kashmir it occupies by giving them a special status under Article 370 of the constitution. Legally speaking, the Indian Occupied Kashmir is a semi-autonomous region. However, the claims of autonomy and empowerment of the people of IOK fizzle out due to the fact that the region is controlled with iron fist by more than half a million soldiers and security officials. Reports of extra judicial killings, rape and torture are rampant, and mass graves have been unearthed in the past, to exposing India’s use of brute force to cripple the resistance.
On the other hand, completely ignoring the aspirations and demands of the people of GB, the state of Pakistan has failed to honor and own them. Neither is Gilgit-Baltistan being accorded a political or administrative status at par with Azad Jammu and Kashmir, nor is it being fully integrated in Pakistan. Experiments have been made to “empower the people”, by creating a legislative assembly through a presidential order, but without the parliament’s backing, all such efforts have proven to be unsustainable, and unfulfilling.
While denying the people of GB the rights of citizenship, the state of Pakistan has been using the region’s resources to strengthen the country’s economy. Because no serious efforts are being made to resolve the constitutional issue, and address the grievances and demands of the locals, there’s a growing sense of resentment that is being expressed vocally at various platforms, within and outside the country.
If Gilgit-Baltistan is a disputed region, then under what moral or legal authority is Pakistan using our land for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, ask nationalist and progressive leaders, voicing the sentiments of an increasingly large number of youth and political workers.
Modi’s statement about the people of Gilgit-Baltistan thanking him, which in a way was indicative of him getting involved in the region’s politics, needs to be looked at in this context.
His administration apparently wants to capitalize on the resentment and flare up the emotions in the GB region, to create a situation where people start openly agitating against Pakistan, and oppose the ‘game-changing’ CPEC project. This is an alarming situation.
Before the situation gets ugly, there needs to be a sensible and concerted effort to resolve the constitutional limbo faced by the people of the mountainous region.
The parliamentary committee headed by Sartaj Aziz needs to act fast in accordance with the wishes of the people of Gilgit-Balitstan, as expressed by the resolutions of the elected assembly. Pakistan needs to give provincial status to the region and end the longstanding identity crisis of the people who continue to unconditionally love, and sacrifice, for the country.
