Gilgit-Baltistan — some history, some future

GB's constitutional status, connectivity remain critical issues for locals, urgent attention needed

My piece last week concerning my recent travels in Gilgit-Baltistan evoked public interest. Connectivity — air and land — as highlighted remains the foundational issue for both tourists and people. One local reader commented, "...travelling, not for pleasure but [even] under absolutely unavoidable situations, is torturous to say the least. I left Gilgit in the mid-1970s, and the misery of rough travelling is unendingly continuing." The observation went on, "times have changed everywhere else for the better, except the unforgiving stretch of Karakorum Highway (KKH) from Thakot to Gilgit, and at Tatta Pani ahead of Chilas."

So, if there is one issue that should command all-time, urgent and continuous attention, it is road travel and air connectivity. Keeping Babusar Pass open year-round and improving road conditions between Thakot, Chilas and Tatta Pani would alleviate local suffering and make the lofty tourism claims worthy of the time, words and efforts spared for them. Uninterrupted electricity supply is also an existential calling that needs to be answered. Only then will the utopian travel and tourism bonanza materialise.

The same reader was sceptical about the Diamer-Bhasha-Dasu dam projects. He wrote, "The two projects on KKH will bring a lot of goodness for all in the country, and less for the people of GB. They are destined to face the brunt of these projects now, with nothing to gain subsequently." These are serious observations demanding serious attention.

Another issue highlighted remains the constitutional status of GB within and with Pakistan. Locals lament that since GB has no impact on national politics, because its people have no right to vote at the national level, the area remains a political backwater. And it is not a priority for any political party or its leader. Thanks to the military's attention, the GB commands some attention, infrastructural uplift and connectivity, as highlighted in my successive writings.

Historically, GB has remained a hub on one of the Silk Routes linking China and Central Asia with the West and South Asia. Rock carvings (petroglyphs) in GB suggest human presence around 2000 BCE. These early inhabitants practised the Bon religion, before Buddhism arrived around the 2nd Century CE. From the 7th to 9th Centuries CE, the Buddhist Patola Shahi dynasty governed the area that was contested by China's Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Empire. Sufi orders introduced Islam to the region from Persia and Central Asia between the 14th to 16th Centuries, ending the Buddhist era. Skardu's Maqpon dynasty under Ali Sher Khan Anchan unified the region and included Chitral and Ladakh in his dominions. The dynasty ruled GB, Chitral and Ladakh, collectively called 'Little Tibet', effective in the 13th Century, till the Dogras took over.

In the 19th Century, Kashmir's Dogra rulers annexed GB to their princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. GB was then under the British paramountcy. Fearing a Russian invasion, the British founded the Gilgit Agency in 1889, establishing civil and military control. Just before the 1947 partition of British India, the British terminated GB's lease (undertaken in 1935), handing Gilgit Agency back to the Maharaja of Kashmir. The predominantly Muslim population detested Dogra rule, and the British-led Gilgit Scouts staged a bloodless coup on November 1, 1947, and overthrew the Dogra governor. A provisional government, the "Islamic Republic of Gilgit", was briefly formed before unconditionally acceding to Pakistan on November 16, 1947. Gilgit Scouts then moved to take Baltistan, completing annexation with Pakistan by May 1948.

Pakistan has not formally integrated the region as a province, due to its presumable link with the ongoing Kashmir dispute, and instead administers it as federally controlled "Northern Areas". The "Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009" renamed the region as 'Gilgit-Baltistan', granting it self-rule with an elected legislature. The area at present enjoys semi-provincial status, although the local population desires and demands full integration as a province. The issue, perceptually at least, remains contentious with India, which has a claim over the entire territory of Jammu and Kashmir, including GB.

CPEC and KKH enhance GB's strategic importance, besides its untapped mineral resources, hydropower potential and tourism appeal. GB's a little under 73,000 km, houses an estimated 1.7 million people practising Sunni, Shia and Ismaili sects of Islam in unique cultural diversity and languages.

The area's constitutional status remains the first and foremost matter of importance. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution granted a special, semi-autonomous status to the former state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) within India, if temporarily. This article was abrogated by the Modi Government in August 2019, and the Supreme Court of India subsequently, in December 2023, upheld the abrogation as constitutionally valid. With India repealing the cited status for the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, there is no reason for Islamabad to stick to a similar archaic position overtaken by events, and to continue to keep AJ&K and GB in constitutional limbo.

These two regions should have been declared as Pakistan's provinces immediately after the Indian revocation of Article 370 in 2019. The area and its people deserve full citizenship, equal status and all constitutional rights, including the right to vote. The timidity of decision-makers, shying away from such a declaration, is not understood and needs bold attention and correction. With the present drive to add more provinces to Pakistan, GB and AJ&K should be included in the impending constitutional reform, as and when carried out.

Along with the cited connectivity issues, electricity woes, and constitutional status, the Government needs to be wary of the rising sectarianism in the area, especially in the Gilgit Valley and Chilas on the KKH. Iran's more than friendly attention, especially in the Skardu area, deserves a bilateral audit. One feels the time is just right to move on this burning issue, and others, between Islamabad and Tehran.

Iran seems to have realised the value of Pakistan's sincere relationship in the backdrop of Iran's June war with Israel, wherein Islamabad, especially its military leadership, provided not only unflinching support, it also pleaded Iran's case, where it mattered. Following the Agha Khan's model, Tehran can lend social and economic support to the area, ensuring sectarian peace and harmony, which will benefit all communities.