Gilgit Baltistan: Proposal of Pakistani Think Tank Rejected

SKARDU: The proposal of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) to make Gilgit-Baltistan a province of Pakistan is farce, impracticable and will never be accepted by the people of the region. This was stated by chairman of the Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement Manzoor Hussain Parwana while reacting to the proposal by the NGO recently.He said the proposal coming from the intellectuals of Pakistan was tantamount to distorting facts about the issue because how an area which was not even part of Pakistan can be made its province. He said Pakistan cannot amend Article 1 of the constitution of 1973 to make Gilgit-Baltistan its province because Gilgit-Baltistan has no representation in the parliament of Pakistan, nor the parliament has the right to legislate on the region. If it is possible under the constitution, it would be taken as a ploy to perpetuate Pakistan's rule in the region, Mr Parwana maintained. He said at present the rulers of Pakistan were not even in a position to bring changes to the wrongs done to the constitution by former dictators and to amend the law for the sake of Gilgit-Blatistan would cerate more complications for the country. He said if the National Assembly wanted to bring the region under the control of Pakistan it cannot do so because it was not under the jurisdiction of the house. Had it the power to do so, then it must do the same to bring the regions of Kargil and Ladakh into Pakistan's control, so that the issue of Kashmir is resolved for good. He said the people of Gilgit-Baltistan had no intention to acceded to Pakistan because their forefathers had no entered in such an agreement with Pakistan. He said people must understand that in 1947, the people of the region had formed a state of their own after kicking out the Dogras which was later abolished in the name of the Kashmir issue and the region is still attached to Kashmir dispute. As the issue of Kashmir is to be resolved, so is the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan, he added.The GBUM chief said if the intellectuals of Pakistan cannot raise voice for the rights of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, they should not create confusion about the rights of the local people by presenting unworkable solution to the international issue.