Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi addressed a joint session of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and Gilgit-Baltistan Council on Sunday to announce the G-B Reforms Order 2018.
In response, members of the opposition tore copies of the order, while protests broke out outside the assembly amidst strikes in ten GB districts.
Abbasi’s address had come a day after numerous locals were injured in tear gas firing by the police. These locals were protesting the premier’s visit and impending announcement of the G-B Order.
The protests, led by opposition leaders, demanded constitutional rights for the region similar to the rest of the country, and not governance through presidential orders. The government maintains that the latest attempt is an improved version of Governance Order 2009, which had been introduced by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in 2009.
A major hindrance in this process is the region's contentious status as part of the Kashmir dispute, with both Pakistan and India claiming the pre-partition Jammu and Kashmir state in its entirety, which includes G-B
“We don’t want orders, we need our constitutional rights as Pakistanis,” says Opposition Leader Captain (r) Muhammad Shafi. “The fact that the latest order is proposed as the government tenure is ending shows that it is a political gimmick and not a sincere attempt to address our concerns.”
The latest protests in G-B are an offshoot of the locals’ demand for the region to be formally incorporated into the country - potentially as a fifth province - by bringing it under the Pakistan constitution.
Two years ago, a committee was formed in the GBLA to mull constitutional status for the region, amidst Chinese pressure to mainstream the entry point of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
A major hindrance in this process is the region’s contentious status as part of the Kashmir dispute, with both Pakistan and India claiming the pre-partition Jammu and Kashmir state in its entirety, which includes G-B.
Hence, the latest G-B Order has been met with criticism by India, with Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Syed Haider Shah being summoned to register protest against attempts to change the status of GB.
A demonstration against the Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 was held at Yadgaar Chowk on Friday. More than 3,000 people were in attendance. Similar protests were held all over GB
Even Kashmiri nationalist leaders have been critical of any attempts to mainstream G-B, without taking the population of Azad Kashmir and Indian-administered Kashmir on board.
Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said in 2016 that giving G-B constitutional status amounts to ‘betraying Kashmiris.’ He wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to oppose to the move for G-B’s merger with the rest of Pakistan.
However, legal experts believe that such a merger would not compromise Pakistan’s position on Kashmir.
“It would need a constitutional amendment, designed to give [the G-B locals] the same rights as the rest of Pakistan,” said former Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Mian Allah Nawaz. “As long as it is clearly highlighted that the potential Gilgil-Baltistan province would comply with whatever the eventual Kashmir solution is, there is no legal hindrance [for its merger].”
Even so, for the protestors, the G-B Order is a denial of their fundamental rights, which is what they have been hoping to highlight through protests across the region, accusing the local authorities of “spilling blood.”
“There was bloodshed in the night,” says a spokesperson of the Gilgit Baltistan Awareness Forum. “G-B has a population of 20 million. How can only a few elective members, without taking the considerations of opposition members, come up with a law? Even the cabinet members are not aware [about the formation of the G-B Order.”
A major fear for the locals is the continued clampdown of the state on the local narrative and mass censorship.
“This is the 21st century. Right to information is a fundamental right. This is like modern-day slavery, where the prime minister is a superpower over G-B legislations – a prime minister who was not elected by us,” the spokesperson adds.
For many others, G-B’s future is not about any status for the region. The locals just want control over their own fate.
“If G-B cannot be given the status of the fifth province if it compromises Pakistan’s position on Kashmir, then we have no intention of blackmailing the state,” says G-B Awami Action Committee Chairman Sultan Raees,
“What we want is for G-B to be given an autonomous status through an act of parliament, something like Azad Kashmir, so that till the Kashmir issue is resolved, locals can have their fundamental rights and control over their own resources.”
G-B journalist Shabbir Mir warns the state against ignoring local protests, which he feels can grow into a bigger movement.
“The huge rally in Skardu is an example of the intensity of the protest. And in the age of social media it is hard to ignore grievances of the locals.”
