With its first session on December 10 last year, the 33-member Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly, elected under the self-governance order 2009, saw 12 bills being presented in the house, of which 10 were passed. Of these bills, only six could be made into laws. The fate of the pending bills before Gilgit-Baltistan governor is unknown. One of the bills approved was on lawmakers’ salaries and other associated incentives, which sailed through the houses without any dissent and delay.
“As per the self-governance order, it was mandatory for the G-B assembly to be in session for 130 days a year but it could hardly spent 52 days in the session,” said a source privy to the assembly proceeding. He said that in nine sessions, the lawmakers did not pay much heed to the legislation and killed time in speaking on points of order. He added that the expenditure incurred with respect to salaries and other perks and privileges of the members amounts to Rs70 million.
Apropos calamities, the Attabad landslide was the first disaster that tested the local government. Though the IDPs of Attabad were provided compensation last month, thousands of people in Upper Hunza are still cut off because of the lake and face immense difficulty in commuting as 22 kilometres of the Karakoram Highway is under water. The second catastrophe was the floods that uprooted the infrastructure of the region, inflicting a loss that was estimated by the government to be over Rs10 billion. Allegations of misappropriation in relief goods also surfaced, but died down eventually.
Additionally, none of the claims made by the prime minister on the eve of elections could be materialised, such as making Gilgit and Skardu airports international and declaring Gilgit and Skardu as “big cities”.
Published in The Express Tribune December 13th, 2010.
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