Betwixt and between

Gilgit-Baltistan is a casualty of independence with an ambiguous tax status and no representation in Parliament

Gilgit-Baltistan as an entity is one of the casualties of independence along with the much more regularly discussed Kashmir. Its administrative status has proved to be as much of a headache for the government as it is for its residents. It has an ambiguous tax status and no representation in the Federal Parliament. It does have a ruling ‘council’ that is the frequent subject of local irritation and occasional anger and is probably the most-visited tourist destination in the country. It is linked to the rest of Pakistan by a limited and often irregular air service and the Karakoram Highway. Neither is designed for or is capable of volume traffic.

Various legislative efforts have been made over the years to enhance the status of this non-province, none of them being an ideal solution given the linkage to Kashmir issues. No resolution in Kashmir means no resolution in G-B. The latest source of disaffection is the newly promulgated Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018, one of the last acts of the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government. Why the order has provoked such ire is that it acted as a replacement for the G-B Empowerment and Self-governance Order 2009 that the G-B people saw as the closest they had yet got to local empowerment and they were extremely annoyed to find the rug pulled from under them and power once again devolving to the centre. Now the Supreme Appellate Court has suspended the Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 and issued contempt of court notices to a range of respondents, including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former prime minister, for violation of the law –- the appellate court clearly deciding that the people of G-B had made their case.

The reality is that there is going to be no early resolution of the G-B conundrum, and this at a time when there is an uptick in local and international tourism. The insertion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into the equation does nothing to lower the temperature either as the people of G-B feel that they have not been given ‘their share’ of the benefits of the project. Over to the next government.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2018.

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