Pakistan to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan to full-fledged province with all constitutional rights
Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs, Ali Amin Gandapur Wednesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would soon visit the region and make the formal announcement.
PTI 17 September, 2020 3:43 pm IST
Ghanche district, Gilgit-Baltistan | Commons
Ghanche district, Gilgit-Baltistan | Representational image | Commons
Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan’s status to that of a full-fledged province, a Pakistani media report on Thursday quoted a senior minister as saying.
India has clearly conveyed to Pakistan that the entire union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of the country by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession.
According to a report in the Express Tribune, Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs, Ali Amin Gandapur, on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would soon visit the region and make the formal announcement to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan to the status of a full-fledged province with all constitutional rights.
Gandapur said Gilgit-Baltistan would be given adequate representation on all constitutional bodies, including the National Assembly and the Senate.
After consultation with all stakeholders, the federal government has decided in principle to give constitutional rights to Gilgit-Baltistan, the minister told reporters.
India has said the Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it.
India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, Pakistan should immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation, the Ministry of External Affairs said in May while protesting Islamabad’s efforts to bring material change in Pakistan occupied territories.
Gandapur also said that work on the Moqpondass Special Economic Zone would begin under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of Beijing’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The CPEC is a collection of infrastructure and other projects under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013. Originally valued at USD 46 billion, the projects were worth over USD 60 billion as of 2017.
India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
https://theprint.in/world/pakistan-to-elevate-gilgit-baltistan-to-full-fledged-province-with-all-constitutional-rights/504745/Pak says Gilgit-Baltistan to be full fledged province
ANI
18th September 2020, 15:03 GMT+10
Islamabad [Pakistan], September 17 (ANI): Weeks after releasing a political map that laid untenable claims to Indian territories, Pakistan has decided to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan to the status of a full-fledged province, according to a Pakistani minister quoted in a media report.
The Express Tribune quoted Minister Ali Amin Gandapur today said that the government has decided to elevate Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) to the status of a full-fledged province.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would soon visit the region and make a formal announcement in this regard.
Last month, condemning Prime Minister Imran Khan for releasing Pakistan's new political map laying untenable claims to Indian territories, India had termed the act as an "exercise in political absurdity.""We have seen a so-called "political map" of Pakistan that has been released by PM Imran Khan. This is an exercise in political absurdity, laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our union territories of Jammu Kashmir and of Ladakh," the Government of India said in a stern statement.
India also slammed Pakistan for their malafide intentions and said it confirms the reality of "Pakistan's obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism."The Imran Khan government had released a new political map of Pakistan, claiming Indian territories of Junagadh, Sir Creek and Manavadar in Gujarat, of Jammu and Kashmir and a part of Ladakh.
This came after the first anniversary of the Indian government's decision to revoke Article 370 which gave special powers to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/266431259/pak-says-gilgit-baltistan-to-be-full-fledged-provincePakistan to soon make occupied Gilgit-Baltistan its 5th province
The Imran Khan government is soon going to illegally integrate the occupied Gilgit-Baltistan region by making it Pakistan's fifth province.
Pakistan to soon make occupied Gilgit-Baltistan its 5th province
Updated:
Sep 18, 2020, 15:59 PM IST
Source:
IANS
ISLAMABAD: The Imran Khan government is soon going to illegally integrate the occupied Gilgit-Baltistan region by making it Pakistan's fifth province.
Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune quoted Minister of 'Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs' Ali Amin Gandapur as saying on Wednesday that the government has decided to 'elevate Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) to the status of a full-fledged province with all constitutional rights, including its representation in the Senate and the National Assembly.'
Prime Minister Khan would soon visit the region and make the formal announcement in this regard, Gandapur said. "Gilgit-Baltistan would be given adequate representation on all constitutional bodies, including the National Assembly and the Senate. After consultation with all stakeholders, the federal government has decided in principle to give constitutional rights to Gilgit-Baltistan," the minister told a delegation of journalists from G-B, the newspaper reported.
"Our government has decided to deliver on the promise it made to the people there," the minister said adding that the subsidy and tax exemption on wheat given to the region would continue. "Until the people there stand on their feet, they will continue to get the subsidies," Gandapur said, acknowledging deprivation of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan for the last 73 years.
About the upcoming elections in the region, Gandapur said that voting would be held in mid-November and the distribution of party tickets to candidates would begin soon. He also revealed that the ruling party of Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) can enter into an electoral alliance with any local party but not with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Several rights activists from Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) and G-B have been critical of the polls, arguing that Imran Khan`s objective is to establish a government of its own choice through elections and subsume in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan.
Under the current circumstances, free and fair elections in Gilgit are impossible because of the colonial Schedule IV and Anti-Terrorism Act which are used to crush civil dissent by arresting people and censoring them if they express their political views, activists have argued.
Recently, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in a searing report, slammed the federal government for nullifying Gilgit Baltistan`s province-like status granted in 2009 as per the Empowerment and Self-Governance Order. The federal government in 2018 withdrew whatever "negligible powers" that had been delegated to the region, the commission said.
The HRCP also lamented the disenfranchisement of people in Gilgit-Baltistan, saying that the 2018 order annulled the Gilgit-Baltistan Council which had local representation and gave excessive powers to Pakistan`s Prime Minister.
https://zeenews.india.com/india/pakistan-to-soon-make-occupied-gilgit-baltistan-its-5th-province-2310570.html
