POK Package: Autonomy or Illusion

By Dr. K.N. Pandita

On 29 August 2009, Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Gilani announced a political-cum administrative package for Northern Areas, which proposes replacing the existing Northern Areas Legislative Council with a representative legislative assembly, appointment of a Governor for Northern Areas, a Prime Minister heading a 6-member Council of Ministers with specific subjects to administer. Pakistani newspapers reported ten items specifying the thrust of the package in addition to noticeable change of the nomenclature of the region from Northern Areas to Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pro-establishment circles and sections media called it a great and bold initiative on the part of the present government ascribing it among the achievements of PPP. They have also claimed party’s historical empathy for the people of Northern Areas since it was late Z.A Bhutto who had taken the initiative of setting up the NALC way back in 1971. 

But there are others, and in particular, the nationalist parties and groups in Gilgit-Baltistan who have called the package an eye-wash, re-asserting that nothing short of full measure of autonomy and total withdrawal of Pakistani troops from their homeland will satisfy them.

The Balawaristan National Front (BNF) chief Abdul Hamid Khan, who has been given asylum by the Belgian government, has repeatedly invoked the UNCIP resolution of 1949 in which Gilgit and Baltistan region has been recognised as the third region of the original State of Jammu and Kashmir (Indian and Pakistan parts being the other two regions) and the specific recommendation that Pakistan should withdraw its fighting forces from this region within three months. As that condition was never fulfilled, rather further reinforcements were made from time to time therefore, according to all nationalist parties of Gilgit and Baltistan, the area is under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

Not only that, these strongly nationalist groups have been bringing the onus of their plight to the doorsteps of the Indian State arguing that Maharaja Hari Singh had signed the accession of the entire state and not only of any part or parts. As such, Gilgit and Baltistan being one of the three components/regions of the original state, India should have intervened vigorously. They further state that the so-called accession of Northern Areas to Pakistan on the behest of the insurgents in November 1947, who had beaten the state forces and taken Governor Ghansara Singh as prisoner of war, worked on the behest of Pakistani army commanders and instructions of colonial political adventurers. The accession of Northern Areas to Pakistan did not reflect the free will of the people ascertained through any legally recognized instrumentality. Therefore it was illegal.

Conscious of the fact that she had no legal and constitutional claim over the region of Gilgit and Baltistan because with the lapse of the British sovereignty over India, this region given to the British India on lease in 1935, had automatically reverted to the parent state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan manipulated a legal document on April 28, 1949 which she called Karachi Agreement. She staked the claim that by virtue of this agreement, PoK had “handed over” the administrative authority of Gilgit and Baltistan to Pakistan, which she re-christened Northern Areas.

All nationalist parties and groups of Gilgit and Baltistan have vehemently rejected this claim and the so-called Karachi treaty both. It has remained a perpetual irritant between the people of the region and the rulers in Islamabad. Political activists of Gilgit and Baltistan have been making a very cogent point in saying that those who signed the agreement were neither from the region nor represented the people. Sardar Ibrahim Khan was the President of “Azad Kashmir”, Chowdhury Abbas was the Head of Muslim Conference and Gurmani was a Pakistani Federal Minister who had signed the agreement. There was none from Gilgit-Baltistan. As such it was an illegal document and Pakistan was illegally posited in Gilgit. Pakistan’s position became very embarrassing when a few years ago PoK High Court gave a landmark judgement saying that Northern Areas are part of the original state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Before we proceed to examine the hardcore of Pakistani Prime Minister’s package in question for Gilgit-Baltistan, it has to be recorded that within a day of the announcement of the package, New Delhi come out with a statement expressly rejecting the step and questioning the right of the Government of Pakistan to legislate for Gilgit and Baltisan. The statement said that the area is part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which has legally acceded to the Indian Union in 1947 and as such Pakistan has no right to legislate on it.

Having said that, let us examine the package what it really carries. A close study shows that it is the old wine in new bottle and there is nothing that may be called a substantial gain for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Under the package, real authority will rest with the Governor who will replace the Chief Executive but will be appointed by the President of Pakistan for indefinite period. The Governor will appoint the Prime Minister from the elected body called legislative assembly. The administrative apparatus of the so-called autonomous region cannot legislate on a variety of subjects like defence, foreign relations, finance, security, inter-state relations etc. The “autonomous” region will not have the status of a province but it will have the Governor, which is an anomaly

Proposed Legislative Assembly will have 24 elected members who will elect 6 women and 3 technocrat members. The Assembly of 33 members will elect the Chief Minister but the Chief Minister has not the right to select his cabinet. That right rests with the Governor. As far as the Governor, the package says that he should have completed 35 years of age and shall have all qualifications that make him a member of the Pakistan National Assembly. This is indirectly to say that the Governor of Gilgit and Baltistan will be from Pakistan. As it is sufficiently indicated that the pattern will be the one existing for PoK, it is obvious that the Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary and the IGP will not be locals but from Pakistan. 

A close study of the package reveals that the way in which the legislative assembly will be constituted and the powers that are given to the Governor and the crippling of the authority of the chief minister are a clear indication of covert intentions of the rulers in Islamabad. They want to get the accession of the region to the Islamic State of Pakistan done and ratified through surreptitious means. At the same time, it is to put the ball in the court of India in regard to the demand for full autonomy among a section of political leadership in Kashmir. A comparative study of the proposed package with what is obtaining in our State should convince anybody that the package offered to the people of Gilgit and Baltisan is only an illusion with the potential of making them a colonised nation for all times to come.

(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir).

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