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| Pak’s move a blow to dialogue process | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, JAN 2: The divergent positions taken by India and Pakistan over moves to transform Gilgit-Baltistan region from the top-Northern part of Jammu and Kashmir, bordering Afghanistan China and India, to another or fifth province of Pakistan are going to further complicate the vexed issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
An assertion over the centrally controlled region by Pakistan through changing its status by an order passed in August last year by President Asif Ali Zardari ostensibly to grant it provincial assembly for the purpose of self-rule can variously be interpreted but to use this as a tool for its formal annexation to Pakistan may have a fallout that can have a bearing on the entire peace process related to Jammu and Kashmir.
Though the other day announcement by newly elected or first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah of Gilgit-Baltistan which is under Pakistan’s control to declare the region as the fifth province of Pakistan has been greeted with the “so-called” qualifier by an External Affairs Ministry spokesman here, the reality regarding the acceptance or rejection of this by the local people may take still more time to unfold.
This is more so since the local people have been resentful of what they thought to be demographic encroachment by allowing the people from other parts of Pakistan through the developmental route whereby large chunks of land of the region were handed down to the developers from other parts of Pakistan.
Not only this a scholar from Jammu University, Professor Rekha Chowdhary, has pointed out in a newspaper article soon after the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009 was passed by Islamabad that around 5,000 square kilometre area from the region was transferred to China which has been aggressively pursuing its interests in the area.
Writing about the demographic changes that the area underwent, Professor Chowhary pointed out that the majority population in the area has been those of Shias who have often been seeking not just political identity but also had national aspirations as is the case in other parts of Jammu and Kashmir whether administered by Pakistan or India.
Not only this but also she pointed out that Pakistan-based separatist leader Syed Salahuddin had opined in the wake of the Islamabad’s August order to change the status of the Gilgit-Baltistan region in the North that any change in the territorial integrity might have negative impact on the political status of the State – Jammu and Kashmir – till this remained unresolved. According to her, JKLF leaders like Yasin Malik on this side of the border have been echoing same stand in the wake of Pakistan’s move.
Somehow, after initial protests over the neighbouring country’s move in August, there have hardly been any efforts to follow it up through the subsequent months by New Delhi. And this could have encouraged Pakistan to assert what the new CM thought to be best to assuage his mentors in Islamabad.
Whatever may be the inner compulsions of Pakistan, the move may cast a shadow over the stalled peace process between India and Pakistan since Islamabad’s latest step vis-à-vis Northern Gilgit-Baltistan region signifies a new kind of unilateralism on its part.
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