People of Gilgit Baltistan: The Political Orphans

I live in the land where the ruling elite love to mock the constitution and the intelligentsia keeps stressing on adherence to this book of the State. I am a student of law so I have always been taught to revere the constitution like the Muslims revere the Quran. It is to me what Bible is to any devout Christian or Granth Sahab to any Sikh. Now slowly the fact has dawned on me that maybe Gen. Zia (the worst of all dictators) was right when he called it (the constitution) a mere book which he could tear any time (and he was true to his word).

I am a resident of the so-called northern areas of Pakistan, a region still constitution less. On the political map of Pakistan, it figures nowhere, still a disputed area. I am confused about my identity. I do not have anyone speaking for me in the parliament. I cannot vote to elect a member of National Assembly. I am still deprived of my fundamental political rights.

The plight of minorities and women in Pakistan is known to everyone. The people of Balochistan have become enemy combatants in their own state. But I envy them all. The women have the likes of Asma Jahangir defending them on every forum. The minorities have their moral support from the western media. The Balochis have their fearless leader,
Akbar Bugti.

We, the people of Gilgit Baltistan, are the political orphans without any forceful voice to speak for our rights. The media is silent since the large newspaper groups do not find a large readership in these mountainous regions where majority of the people are illiterate. The human rights organizations have not found any fertile ground for donor agencies here. Not so recently, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan sent its team to investigate the living conditions of the people there. Till now, its action has been limited to a press conference and a hurriedly written report. Still we have to be thankful to Asma Jahangir and Iqbal Haider for taking this rare initiative unknown in the recorded history of Pakistan. Even the World Social Forum ignored us. No representative from this region was invited (the honourable guest speaker from Kargil pointed it out) and the youth gave vent to their anger by raising slogans against Sardar Qayuum, always known as a big obstacle in the path of North’s struggle.

The government claims that giving constitutional status to Gilgit Baltistan will be a detriment to the Kashmir liberation movement. I find myself dumbfounded at the rationale of our Foreign Office. Keep a nation deprived of their fundamental rights to secure the freedom of another region(The worst example of saving Salim at the expense of Jamil) So, I am sacrificing for my Kashmiri brothers and sisters. I will never be able to have my name on the electoral list of my constituency in the parliament until Kashmir gets its freedom. And, if I ask them the reason for granting self rule to Azad Kashmir, they simply shrug and would devote hours in trying to prove the countless benefits of the so-called base camp for the Kashmir movement.

These enlightened bureaucrats of the region try to downplay the importance of this deprivation of constitutional rights. Their stance is that our region needs development, better infrastructure, and communication networks. The insistence on self rule or provincial status is merely utopian ideal for them. The speeches of our nationalists seem to fall on deaf ears. Now, it does not take the political genius of Noam Chomsky or Tariq Ali to understand the implications of this grave injustice to more than 20 million people of this region. The political vacuum has given a boom to the activities of religious fanatics. The place of the political leadership has been filled by the clerics who foil sectarian sentiments to secure a dominating place on the regional scene. Gilgit Baltistan are suffering the worst sectarian strife in our beloved Islamic Republic. Areas are designated as no-go zones for certain sects and people are migrating to secure places. The worst part is that the youth of this region are the frontrunners in this violence. They set government offices ablaze, lead violent rallies and do not spare any public property. The political suffocated and exploitation has given rise to such violent tendencies in these young minds.

And we have an impotent legislative body known as Northern Areas Legislative Council, a leisure club for private contractors. The region is ruled by the Kashmir and Northern Areas Affairs ministry where the haughty bureaucrats do not bother to even pass a single glance at these worthless documents. The resolutions of the council always land in their bins. Even the judiciary of Northern Areas is regarded as an attached department to ministry. The chief executive of the region is appointed by the high-ups in Islamabad, with the status of a federal minister.

These chief executives rarely visit this unfortunate region; let aside solving the problems of the people living here who do not have the honour of being their electorate.

Regardless of this gloomy picture, the people of Gilgit Baltistan remain loyal to Pakistan. Centralist parties, such as Pakistan Peoples party headed by Benazir Bhutto, have always been the leading political groups and winners in the election of the legislative council. The nationalist parties fighting for separation have not been able to get any electoral support.The brave people of this region waged an indigenous struggle to liberate themselves and unconditionally acceded with Pakistan. Their first priority is any sustainable constitutional arrangement within Pakistan. Granting provincial status or self rule as in Azad Kashmir are considered to be workable options by the majority of political activists here while accession to Kashmir is considered an unthinkable option for most.