Gilgat –Baltistan Elections -A Farce

In the modern-day-world elections form the corner stone of any democratic setup and as such, would be welcomed, in the normal course. But if elections are used to cover up the sinister designs and deprive the people of their fundamental rights, voices of opposition are bound to be there. That is precisely what is happening in Gilgit-Baltistan, a part of Jammu and Kashmir State illegally occupied by Pakistan.
Elections to the uni-cameral Legislative Assembly ( 33-seats including seven nominated) in this region are due to take place on the 8th of this month but much before the exercise covering an eletorate of some six hundred thousand could be gone through, the opposition has gathered momentum. Petitions have been filed in Islamabad High Court seeking suspension of the elections and declaring these illegal.

One of the petitions has been filed by All Pakistan Muslim League Chief Coordinator Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri. He has maintained that the notification issued under the provisions of the impugned Statutory Regulatory Order of 2009, a mere executive order, were a violation of the Supreme Court orders. The petition said the government had no constitutional and legal authority to issue any such executive orders, adopt and enforce the ordinary and special laws in Gilgit-Baltistan, appoint the chief minister and the chief election commissioner to hold elections and thus rule the people of the area in the ‘colonial way’ and violate their fundamental rights.
India has expressed its strong opposition to holding of G-B election. The External Affairs Ministry spokesman has described it as an attempt by Pakistan “to camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation of the region.” He said India’s position is very clear. “The entire J&K state which includes Gilgit-Baltistan, is an integral part of India. We are concerned at continued effort of denying people of region their political rights and the efforts being made to absorb these territories.”
Gilgit Baltistan covers 85,793 sq. km area of the Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir and has a population of about two million people. It was earlier referred to as the “Northern Areas” of Pakistan. In 1970 it was divided into two separate administrative divisions: Mirpur-Muzaffarabad which Pakistan calls ‘Azad’ Jammu and Kashmir and the Federally Administered Gilgit-Baltistan area. Interestingly, no elections were held in the region till 2009 when the Pakistan government issued a statutory regulatory order constituting a Legislative Assembly.
But the irony is that, above this Assembly is a Council chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan with Governor of Gilgit- Baltistan as its vice chairman. This Council has the power to frame laws on 54 subjects thereby rendering the Elected Legislative Assembly as redundant. The only purpose of having the Assembly is to give the world the impression that the people of Gilgit- Baltistan have a self-governing body and their democratic rights are well protected.
The fact is that the people of the region have been deprived of all basic rights for the last 66 years and they have never reconciled to their forcible occupation by Pakistan. Senge Hasna Serin, President of the Institute of Gilgit- Baltistan Studies and many others have been asserting that in lawless Gilgit-Baltistan people would opt for India any day if a plebiscite were to be held.
Ironically, Pakistan has been considering Jammu and Kashmir a disputed area which needs to be resolved between India and Pakistan. But it has never allowed a conducive atmosphere to grow for a meaningful bilateral dialogue. In the late sixties it handed over large chunks of the occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir to China for constructing the Karakorum Highway.

Now, more areas of the state are being handed over to China for the China–Pakistan economic corridor. The 3000 Km. corridor will cost $46 billion and will pass through Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzafarabad areas to connect China’s western Xingjian province with Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. If Pakistan continues to hand over areas of Jammu and Kashmir under its occupation to China, how can the issue be resolved between India and Pakistan?
It may be recalled that even the Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that Gilgit- Baltistan area is not a part of Pakistan. It said that the region is a part of the area of Jammu and Kashmir now under Pakistan’s occupation. As such the federal Government of Pakistan has no jurisdiction over the region. Despite this ruling Pakistan government has been depriving the people of the region of all basic, humanitarian and political rights.
Pakistan has had an evil eye on Jammu and Kashmir from day one. When Jinnah tried to outsmart the most popular leader of the state Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah by threatening him to join Pakistan, he was ridiculed with a garland of shoes at a public rally in the historic Lal Chowk by none other than the Sheikh.
Soon after August 15, 1947 when two independent nations of India and Pakistan came into existence, the then Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh signed a standstill agreement with the two countries to give him time to decide which country to accede to as per the Indian Independence Act.

But after signing the agreement Pakistan did not have the patience to wait and let the Maharaja decide. In October Jinnah sent in tribesmen backed by Pakistani army regulars to take control of Srinagar and its airport. But people like Maqbool Sherwani and Master Abdul Aziz who sacrificed their lives held them back. The raiders went on a rampage en-route indulging in loot, killings and plunder, destroying town after town and village after village.

The volunteers of Sheikh Abdullah, ‘Razakars’ as they used to be called, fought the raiders in the streets with sticks and bare hands. Finally, the Maharaja acceded to India by signing the Instrument of Accession and the arrival of Indian Army on Oct. 27, 1947 marked a death knell to the Pakistani raiders. They could never reach the Srinagar airport.
After having been punished by the people of Kashmir for casting an evil eye on them, Pakistan did not subsequently accept even the UN resolutions because the resolutions set a precondition of total withdrawal by Pakistan from the occupied areas for holding a plebiscite. The areas are still under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. Gilgit and Baltistan form part of this area.
Since then Pakistan has been trying one or the other tactics to usurp Kashmir and subjecting the people of the area under its illegal occupation to all sorts of persecutions. The farce of an election in Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of this chain.

-By Ashok Handoo

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