Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

By Noor Pamiri     گزشتہ دنوں اسلام آباد میں ہفتہ وار بریفنگ کے دوران دفترخارجہ کے ترجمان نے کہا کہ گلگت بلتستان پاکستان کا حصہ نہیں ہے، اور اسے ملک کا آئینی حصہ بنانے کی کوئی کوشش نہیں کی جارہی ۔ انہوں نے یہ ھی کہا کہ گلگت بلتستان کشمیر کا حصہ ہے اور مسئلہ کشمیر کے حل ہونے تک علاقے کو آئینی صوبہ بنانایاپھر آئینی حقوق دینا ممکن نہیں ہے۔

By Syed Shamsuddin   When martial law was proclaimed in the country in 1977, Azad Kashmir was exempted while the Northern Areas was declared as martial Law Zone “E”. This resulted into a misplaced perception here that this new façade and veneering would thenceforward settle the long persisting constitutional imbroglio when martial would end and entitle this region a dispensation at par with the four other zones of the country to be accorded a provincial status once the martial was withdrawn. This naturally gave an impetus to the movement for the creation of a separate province. Such notions were but natural to thrive and bolstered with the advent of representation to G-B albeit with the observer’s status in the Majlis-i-Shura. It is noteworthy that in response to the vociferous demand of the people, government of the day came up with unequivocal assurances in seventies that steps would be taken to lead the people of the region on to representative form of government. Yet a f

 By  Syed Shamsuddin   “Watever is best administered is best”, said Alexander Pope. This postulate seems to have the axiomatic validity even in the present era. To put it unexaggeratedly, the characteristics and attributes of governance become well discernible from handling of the day to day administrative business and the manner in which strategizing and policy-making gets underway in a system experimented with – the barometer being that of and the yardstick getting reckoned with how efficiently and unfailingly it delivers to those governed in tune with their aspirations and in juxtaposition with the key-problems being faced in the strict democratic parlance. It is important here to pen down briefly the modes of governance that in G-B during the preceding 67 years for the information of those keenly interested in the region’s modern history. To begin with, Gilgit-Baltistan constitutes a region where amorphous institutional and essentially antediluvian models of governance p