G-B provincial status

The Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly has unanimously adopted a joint resolution demanding provincial status for the autonomous region. Provincial status has been a longstanding demand among the local populace, as this would assure the region equal status within the federation, with full representation in Islamabad, and ‘full citizenship’ of Pakistan for people from the region. It would also have knock-on benefits for the local economy in terms of ease of business for local and foreign investors, and could lead to a tourism boom as well.

But the formal demand for provincial status did not just come out of nowhere. The PTI itself floated it. In November, ahead of regional elections, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur was shuttled off to Gilgit, where he announced several new projects, besides promising provincial status for G-B. The PTI went on to win the election and form the regional government. The party could have conveniently forgotten the promise, but it chose to push it forward, setting up a committee to figure out how exactly to grant provincial status without violating the same UN Resolutions on Kashmir that we regularly call out India for violating. And therein lies the problem. In a vacuum, the demand for equal status is a legitimate one. Unfortunately, it conflicts with international obligations. The fact that the committee has not said much since being formed is an illustration of how difficult, if not impossible, it would be to integrate G-B into ‘Pakistan proper’ without at least a partial resolution to the Kashmir dispute.

Even the GBLA resolution admits this, calling for a provincial status bill to be passed by Parliament without causing damage to Islamabad’s position on the Kashmir issue. This essentially puts the resolution in conflict with itself. Under most interpretations of the UN resolutions relating to Kashmir, G-B is a part of the dispute. Like Kashmir, it must be given special status without being formally annexed until a formal resolution to the larger territorial dispute. Part of the outrage over India’s 2019 actions in Kashmir was because it violated the same clauses.

But as we have seen, beyond expressing concern, the UN and the world have done little to stop India from its lawbreaking in Kashmir. It would be unsurprising if the same reaction followed the formal annexation of G-B. In this context, the only reason not to annex G-B is our own respect for international law. But even then, India might still be able to make hay of such a move. Pakistan claims all of Kashmir. India might try to play partial annexation as Pakistan’s acceptance of the LoC as a permanent border.

And that is unacceptable.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2021.

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