Round The World

New Delhi, 24 September 2009

Gilgit-Baltistan Occupation

PAKISTAN’S NEW CHALLENGE TO INDIA

By Prof. Bhim Singh

(Chairman, J&K National Panthers Party)

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, on September 4 last, threw a bombshell in the name of ‘empowerment’ and ‘self rule’ governance order for ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ region which Pakistan identified since its occupation as ‘Northern Areas’. With the aid and abetment of the Pakistani army, the Gilgit Muslim Scouts abducted Kashmir Governor, Brig. Ghansara Singh on November 16, 1947 from Astore. Indian army could not rescue the Governor and Pakistan Army took over Gilgit. Since then this region has been under the illegal occupation of Pakistan’s military. Pakistan’s interest in the region is obvious as the geo-strategic importance of the territory has never been in doubt. To the north-east lies China, further north is Kazakhstan, to the north-west there is Afghanistan. The controversial Karakoram Highway runs through the region and the Siachen Glacier commands a strategic portion of it. There lies Anglo-American interest too.

Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan’s Prime Minister granted in 1994 a ‘Reform Package’ for the Gilgit region by introducing a so-called ‘24 Member Council’ for the occupied areas without granting any civil, political or economic rights. The Council worked directly under the command of the Pakistani army. The ‘Reform Package’ was described by the then Prime Minister of POK, Sardar Qayyum Khan as a joke.

He stated: “This has caused serious concern in our minds... I would urge Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to clarify that this decision in no way affects, or is prejudicial to, the UNCIP Resolutions on Kashmir.”  Fifteen years later, another Government of Pakistan led by the same party, PPP, has repeated the same bluff of 1994. Now ‘Self Rule’.

The present move reveals Pakistan’s dangerous conspiracy to annexe strategic areas of Gilgit-Baltistan comprising 32,500 sq. miles of the territory of the erstwhile Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir as its fifth province. Nearly 5,000 sq. miles of this area were ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963 under the so-called Karachi Agreement signed by Chou-en-Lai and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as the Foreign Ministers of China and Pakistan respectively.

China has since built Karakoram Highway (KKH) which bridges China with Europe via Peshawar (Pakistan). China has also built 16 Air-strips on KKH, mostly used for military purpose. Pakistan has taken up a new project to build 6 Mega Dams in Gilgit-Baltistan with the technical and financial assistance of China. Both these decisions; ceding J&K territory to China and building 6 Mega Dams in the occupied territory of J&K seriously
violate the UNCIP resolution of August 13, 1948 on which Pakistan has been harping for 62 years. Besides, the presence of 5,000 well-equipped Chinese troops as disguised labourers and engineers and the construction of 16 Air-strips on the Highway for Jet Fighters may jeopardize the peace process between India and Pakistan. It may also effect peace prospects in Afghanistan and endanger India’s security. The Anglo-American Bloc has been showing special interest in the region because of China’s presence.

The ‘Self Rule Package’ is an improved form of the 1974 Interim Constitution of the so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’. It appears that Pakistan has decided to establish its locus standi both in POK and the Gilgit region by legitimizing its status from an ‘occupier’ or ‘encroacher’ to a ‘possessor’. This is to counter India’s claim to liberate the entire occupied territory from Pakistan, as declared by its Parliament in a resolution adopted in 1994 during P.V. Narasimha Rao’s Prime Ministership. The ‘Self Rule’ Package provides two Houses of the Legislature --- a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council. The Council shall enjoy the legislative powers over all the sixty and odd subjects identified with municipal powers. The Assembly has no legislative competence. The decisions of the Council are not subject to the authority of the Assembly. Interestingly, the Council shall have 15 Members and shall be presided over by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The Governor of Gilgit-Baltistan is a sitting Minister in the Federal Government who shall also be the Vice Chairman of the Council. Shockingly, the Prime Minister of Pakistan is also the Chairman of the Legislative Council of the so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’. Half of the members in the Council shall be nominated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan from amongst the citizens of Pakistan. Similar is the case with the Council of Azad Kashmir. There is a sharp contradiction between Interim Constitution of the ‘Azad Kashmir’, 1974 and Self-Rule Package of ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ 2009. The so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’ is headed by a President who is elected by the Assembly Members and the Prime Minister heads the Government. Both have to be ‘State Subjects’. Pakistan has carefully rather intriguingly changed nomenclatures of these two heads in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Governor, a sitting Federal Minister of Pakistan (of course, a citizen of Pakistan) shall be appointed by the President of Pakistan and the Chief Minister (not Prime Minister) shall be from amongst the members of the Legislative Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan. This is a clear manifestation of the future game plan of Pakistan to annex Gilgit-Baltistan as its fifth province. Moreover, the judicial system makes a mockery of the present Self Rule ordinance. There shall be some so-called judicial officers. Without a High Court, there shall be a Chief Judge with five judges of the so-called Appellate Court. Judges, including Members of Legislative Assembly and the Council shall have to take an oath of allegiance to be loyal to Pakistan and follow the Holy Quran. A candidate for the Assembly need not be a state subject in Gilgit.

In fact, the concept of state subject has been done away since 1947. Qualification of a candidate for the Assembly in POK is that he should be a ‘state subject’ within the scope of the law which was promulgated by Maharaja Hari Singh through a Royal decree in 1927. This continues to be a strict law in J&K and in POK as well. This rule has not been followed in Gilgit package, enabling Pakistani citizens to settle in Gilgit. Naturally so, because one-third of the total population in Gilgit-Baltistan has migrated from Punjab and Balochistan in the past six decades of Pakistani military rule.  

The ‘Self Rule’ ordinance does not mention whether a candidate for the Assembly or Council should be a Muslim. This is understandable as there are no non-Muslims in the region. Not a single non-Muslim survived in the region in 1947. They were killed or converted.

The Instrument of Accession that Maharaja Hari Singh signed while acceding to the Dominion of India in 1947 transferred subjects  including Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communication and Currency to the  Dominion of India. In subtle contrast, the Gilgit ‘Self Rule’ Package expressly provides that jurisdiction over Defence, Foreign Affairs, internal security and matters connected with these subjects shall exclusively be enjoyed by Pakistan. This amounts in international law as a stark invasion and violation of the UNCIP resolution.

The package provides for the constitution of a two member Commission to settle boundary-disputes between Pakistan and Gilgit. Both members shall be appointed by the Governor as employees of Pakistan. Vast lands in the region have been illegally encroached by the Pakistan army and the settlers. The Commission may well be used as an instrument to regularize the illegal encroachments, instead.

The Gilgit-ites fear that political stooges shall be recruited to the so-called Assembly and Council who would then be used as a rubber stamp in its so-called election scheduled for November 12 to serve Pak interest.

Not just that. Pakistan has also managed to serve the rebels in POK with a warning that they may also be framed under a similar ‘Package’. Pakistan clearly intends to reconsolidate its full political supremacy over the occupied territory. The Interim Constitution, 1974 of ‘Azad Kashmir’, may well fall as the next causality. They may have to live with a similar doze which Pakistan has granted to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as Pakistan’s sixth province.

The package deserves serious introspection by New Delhi’s South and North Block dealing with J&K. Pakistan has admitted publicly before the international community and the United Nations that it no longer cares for the dictates or sermons incorporated in the resolutions of the Security Council proposing plebiscite in J&K after withdrawal of Pakistan armies and civilian settlers from the occupied territory. Pakistan has made it clear. ‘No to withdrawal’ and ‘no to UN resolutions’. Fresh Sino-Pak strategy to grab Gilgit-Baltistan may not be quite pleasant for the Anglo-American Bloc. The US interest in the region remains one of establishing bases of the Pentagon for keeping a watch on the expansionist designs of Communist China. British interest in the region is its ‘earth wealth’ which it discovered during its lease period from the Dogra Maharaja in 1935. To cope with the fast changing scenario of POK and Gilgit is a real challenge for the leadership of India and a question mark on the peace prospects in South Asia. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)