ISLAMABAD:The experts here on Tuesday said that there were no international and diplomatic hurdles for the government of Pakistan to grant Gilgit Baltistan (GB) its provisional province status as per the Sartaj Aziz Committee’s recommendations of 2017 and the Supreme Court’s decision of 2019. They demanded the government to grant GB its much desired and awaited provisional province status on priority basis to resolve grievances of the people of the disputed territory.
They were addressing a day-long seminar on “Gilgit Baltistan in National Security Calculus” organized by the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS) to discuss the key impediments leading to the delayed inclusion of GB into national strata despite strong demand of the local masses. The participants of the seminar were shown an introductory video on the think tanks journey of guiding policy making and research endeavors.
In his welcome remarks, President CASS Air Marshall (R) Farhat Hussain Khan said that GB was the only region that shared its borders with three countries sprawling over 72,000 square kilometers comprising 2 million people. He said that it was home to an important link to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and it’s security was lying with the region.
The CASS President said that various governments in Pakistan were observed reluctant to integrate GB into the country as a province. He said the PPP regime in 2009 gave administrative status sans full empowerment. However, the successive PML-N government took away all the powers bestowed to GB by the PPP government under “the elite’s pressure”, he added.
The PTI government, he said also retracted from its on draft presented to the Supreme Court on the matter and did not implement the Court orders during her tenure.
“The people of GB are deprived of their fundamental right as the regional is neither a province nor part of federation. And are also not part of any decision making owing to their status”. Such instances create fault lines that would be a risk to the country’s future and economy, he concluded.
Director General ISSRA Major General Ehsan Mehmood Khan in his keynote address presented a detailed and ground based review on GB and National Security of Pakistan.
He said that it was necessary to understand GB which was an important and strategic region 2.66 times larger than erstwhile FATA and also larger than Sri Lanka owing it’s area of 72,496 square kilometers whereas 36 world smaller states combined were also smaller than GB. It was eight percent of the country’s total area with immense strategic significance with gigantic mountain watersheds, he added.
He mentioned that the region had unique culture, demography and history, adding, “There has been over 50,000 rock art traces found dating back to 5th mellenium B.C”.
He added that GB was the fulcrum of North and dreamland of mountaineers which located between China’s Xinjiang region, Ladakh of India and Wuhan Corridor passing through Afghanistan and Central Asia. The country’s National Security was inextricably linked to GB, he added.
General Khan underlined that GB possessed huge potential of 40,000 MW hydropower generation and had precious minerals of various kind but there was no geographical survey done in the region.
He informed that 70 per cent of the youth population of GB was below 35 years of age. “GB since 1947 has undergone massive socio-economic transformation and emerged as one of the best transformed regions of the country “.
Former Inspector General of Police Afzal Ali Shigri depicted the historical perspective of GB and it’s issues. He said the local people of GB on their own conqured the area and acceded unconditionally with Pakistan.
The GB region since the 1949 agreement with local Kashmiri leaders in Karachi, was given to the federal government without the inclusion of GB representatives.
He added that the Agha Khan Founding while leading various NHOs ledna silent revolution in the form creating more education and awareness among the masses.