PML-N’s decision on caretaker cabinet was made in complete isolation, without consultation with the local leadership
GILGIT: Some of the religio-political parties in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) are demanding the annulment of the provincial caretaker cabinet for being non-representative, biased and unbalanced. These assertions may be true, but if the demand to change the already notified caretaker provincial cabinet is acceded to, it will cause religio-political rifts in the region. The parties which have reservations about the mechanism used for the selection of the cabinet members must tolerate this for now and remain silent for the greater cause of peace in the region.
Of course, it goes without saying that the incumbent government in Islamabad is completely disconnected from the indigenous dynamics of G-B. While the people objected to the previous provincial government of the PPP for being corrupt and incompetent, it is also a fact that the party has actually given a lot to G-B. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1972, visited the region and set the people free from the clutches of the Rajgi system. It should be clear that I am neither a PPP supporter nor do I have any kind of affiliation with that party and nor do I support everything that the PPP has done in the rest of the country. But it is a fact that Bhutto annulled the extension of the Frontier Crimes Regulation and empowered this region through the Northern Areas Legislative Assembly. Later on, in 2009, the PPP, once again, empowered the region through the Gilgit-Baltistan Self-governance Ordinance, 2009 and granted ‘provincial status’ to the region and also gave it an identity and name of ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ instead of the previously used nomenclature of Northern Areas.
In stark contrast, the PML-N, which ruled the country for three terms, did nothing for the betterment and progress of G-B. Admittedly, G-B is indeed a very difficult area to administer. It does not have plains like the other four provinces of the country. It is rustic and remote, marked by mountains and valleys, and has small districts and tehsils. The PML-N’s decision on the caretaker cabinet was made in complete isolation, without consultation with the local leadership. Resultantly, the religio-political parties have decided to start a region-wide protest if the federal government does not do away with the non-representative cabinet. The PML-N is already unpopular in G-B for favouring a certain faction of the population and will definitely lose the next elections. In the previous elections, from Gilgit and from both the constituencies of Astore, the PML-N gave tickets to candidates belonging to a specific community only, even though these constituencies are completely pluralistic and highly-sensitive along sectarian lines.
Irfan Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2015.
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