Fed Up With Pakistan, People Of Gilgit-Baltistan Yearn For Justice And Right To Decide Their Future | World News

Pakistan’s consecutive governments continue to take a blind look at the basic needs of the occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (POGB) inhabitants of Pakistan, making the region a temporary governance framework led by the decisions of Islamabad, not by participating laws.

According to a report published by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), people organize protests in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is regularly occupied by Pakistan, residents are often opposing freezing temperatures to demand land rights, and opposing long power cuts.

POGB was ruled through the decrees and presidential orders, represented in the National Assembly and excluded from the constitutional framework that defines the rest of Pakistan.

“This legal uncertainty stems from the 1949 Karachi agreement, which transfers the control of Gilgit-Baltistan from the region to Pakistan without a single representative from the region.

The emergency demands of Gilgit-Baltistan residents, once defined as the “latest colony”, continue to be ignored by Pakistan’s mainstream political parties. Skardu residents, the largest POGB city, are experiencing 22 hours of load loss in winter based on low -performance hydroelectric projects such as Satpara Dam, which are made to produce electricity in 40,000 houses but offer only a portion of their promises. The region also continues to be disconnected from the national grill.

Protests are exploding in the region with people who demand land rights, oppose unfair taxation and resist the rape of federal projects such as CPEC. People expressed anger on the GB Revenue Authority invoice that imposes taxes without representing representation. The people of the POG have no voting rights in the national elections, nor do they have any voices in making policies that manage their lives according to the report.

While the POGB continues to remain under the orders of Pakistan’s authority in the federal government, local institutions remain toothless, and the increasing constitutional rights, political recognition and real autonomy is triggered.

Activists like Shabir Choudhry, like the Memri report, warned that the region swings on the edge of chaos. Each year, protests are growing loud and complaints are deeper. According to the report, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan are longing for justice, dignity and the right to determine their future.

When Pakistan reached a border agreement with China in 1963, according to the report, when he took Hunza, a portion of the land belonging to Hunza to Beijing was not even consulted. Moreover, the construction of the Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan and China to Gilgit-Baltistan, facilitated the uncontrolled weapons, narcotics and religious militia influx in the region. In the report, these developments were destabilized and caused a dramatic change in the demographic characteristics of the region.