Updated: November 4, 2020 7:31:28 pm
Mount K2, second in height only after Mount Everest, in Gilgit-Baltistan. (Source: Wikipedia)
On November 1, observed every year in Gilgit-Baltistan as “Independence Day”, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his government would grant the region “Provisional provincial status”. When that happens, GB will become Pakistan’s fifth province, although the region is claimed by India as part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, as it existed in 1947 when it entered India.
Gilgit-Baltistan is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan, providing the country’s only territorial border and thus a land route with China, where it meets the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has made the region vital for both countries. In a recent analysis by Andrew Small (Returning to the Shadows: China, Pakistan, and the Fate of CPEC), it is seen that this ambitious project has been slow for a combination of reasons. But given the strategic interests of both countries, CPEC will continue.
To the west of GB is Afghanistan, to the south is Pakistani-occupied Kashmir and to the east is J&K. The plan to grant GB province status has accelerated over the past year. While some comments link it to CPEC and Chinese interest, others in Pakistan say the momentum could come from reaffirming India’s claims after the Jammu and Kashmir shakeup on August 5, 2019.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported in September that the government and opposition had “almost reached consensus” on granting “provisional provincial status” to the region. The newspaper reported that the Pakistani military is also interested and that the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, discussed the matter with political leaders.
What is the current state of the region?
Although Pakistan, like India, links the fate of GB with that of Kashmir, its administrative arrangements are different from those of PoK. While PoK has its own Constitution that establishes its powers and limits with respect to Pakistan, GB has been governed mainly by executive decree. Until 2009, the region was simply called Northern Areas.
It got its current name only with the Order of Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Government), 2009, which replaced the Legislative Council of the Northern Areas with the Legislative Assembly. The NALC was an elected body, but it had only an advisory role to the Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, who ruled from Islamabad. The Legislative Assembly is only a small improvement. It has 24 directly elected members and nine nominees. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram
In 2018, the then government of PML (N) approved an order that centralized even the limited powers granted to the Assembly, a measure linked to the need for greater control over land and other resources for infrastructure projects that were then planned. under the CPEC. The order was challenged and, in 2019, the Supreme Court of Pakistan repealed it and asked the Imran Khan government to replace it with governance reforms. This was not done. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court extended its jurisdiction to GB and arranged for an interim government until the next Legislative Assembly elections.
The last elections were held in July 2015 and the fifth term of the Assembly ended in July this year. No new elections could be held due to the pandemic. It is unclear whether the provincial status will come before or after the polls.
Read also | Pakistan advances Gilgit-Baltistan attempt to camouflage its illegal occupation: MEA
Why the separate state?
Pakistan’s separate agreement with GB dates back to the circumstances in which it came to administer it7. On November 1, 1947, after the ruler of J&K, Hari Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession with India, and the Indian army landed in the Valley to drive the tribal invaders out of Pakistan, there was a rebellion against Hari Singh in Gilgit.
A small force raised by the British to protect Gilgit, ostensibly on behalf of the ruler of Kashmir, but in fact to serve his Gilgit Agency administration, on the borders of what was then the territory of the Great Soviet-British Game, was he mutinied under the leadership of his commander, Major William Alexander Brown. Gilgit had been leased to the British by Hari Singh in 1935. The British returned it in August 1947. Hari Singh sent his representative, Brigadier Ghansar Singh, as governor, and Brown to take over the Gilgit Scouts. But after taking protective custody of the governor on November 1, Brown would hoist the Pakistani flag at his headquarters. Later, the Gilgit Scouts managed to bring Baltistan under their control.
Pakistan did not accept GB’s accession although it took administrative control of the territory. After India went to the UN and a series of Security Council resolutions were passed on the situation in Kashmir, Pakistan believed that neither the GB nor the PoK should annex Pakistan as this could undermine the international case in favor of a plebiscite in Kashmir. He also acknowledges that, should a plebiscite ever be held in Kashmir, votes in GB will also be important.
That is why it is only called a “provisional” provincial state.
Read also | Pak Announces Nov 15 Voting Date for Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly; Indian objects
Is granting this status a step towards Pakistan to accept the LoC status quo?
While India has opposed the plan to make GB a province of Pakistan and in the recent past claimed that it will take control of GB, it is recognized that it is now impossible to change the map. In this regard, you can argue that the GB merger with Pakistan is a move that could help both countries to put the past behind them and move forward on the Kashmir issue, at some point in the future.
What do the people of GB want?
The people of GB have been demanding for years that it become part of Pakistan, they do not have the same constitutional rights that Pakistanis have.
There is practically no connection to India. Some have in the past demanded a merger with PoK, but the people of GB have no real connection to Kashmir either. They belong to various ethnic groups that are not from Kashmir and speak several languages, none of them from Kashmir.
Most of the estimated 1.5 million residents in the UK are Shiites. There is anger against Pakistan for unleashing extremist sectarian militant groups targeting Shiites and dictating on the use of their natural resources, but the prevailing sentiment is that all of this will improve once they are part of the Pakistani federation. There is a small movement for independence, but it has very little traction.
Adrija Roychowdhury’s contributions in New Delhi
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