Gilgit Baltistan is once again in the news. Recently, the meeting here has brought a proposal by consensus. In this proposal, the government of Pakistan has been asked to give it the status of a province. At the same time give it the right of representation in Parliament and other constitutional bodies. This proposal has come from the Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan.
Khurshid is a member of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the ruling party of Pakistan. India has warned Pakistan not to tamper with Gilgit-Baltistan every time. Let’s know what is Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK, how Pakistan has illegally captured these parts of India.
The British were given on lease
In 1947, when the British decided to leave India and announced to liberate it, there were two parts of the country. India and Pakistan were divided and a new country had arrived on the map of the world. In October this year, Pakistan attacked India. Both countries were face to face in the first war.
Pakistan occupied many areas of Jammu and Kashmir. These parts are now known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Gilgit-Baltistan was with the British since 1935. He had leased it from Maharaji Hari Singh. The British used to keep an eye on the surrounding area from the high hills here.
What happened after the partition
The responsibility of supervising the remaining parts including Kashmir was with the ‘Gilgit Scouts’ who were part of the army. After partition, the British left India and after ending the lease, this area was returned to Maharaja Hari Singh. The king then made Brigadier Ghansar Singh the governor of the place. Maharaj also received the soldiers of Gilgit Scouts, whose officers were British. According to history, Gilgit Scouts, who was part of Major WA Brown and Capt. AS Mathison Maharaj at that time, was an officer of the army.
How did Pakistan take possession?
In 1947, when the Pakistan Army attacked Jammu and Kashmir under the guise of tribal people, Maharaj merged his kingdom with India. After the war, the Instrument of Accession was signed on 31 October. Maharaja Hari Singh merged this area with India, but after his move, the local commander in Gilgit-Baltistan revolted by Colonel Mirza Hasan Khan. Colonel Khan declared the independence of Gilgit-Baltistan on 2 November 1947. This situation remained the same for 21 days. After 21 days, Pakistan entered into this area and captured this area.
Gilgit with a population of 1 million
Gilgit-Baltistan is bordered by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the west, Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor in the north, China’s Xinjiang in the northeast, PoK in the south and Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the south-east. The total area of Gilgit-Baltistan is 72,971 square kilometers.
The population here is about 10 lakhs and its administrative center is the city of Gilgit, which has a population of about two and a half lakhs. Gilgit Baltistan often remains in the headlines because of human rights violations. The Pakistan Army is often blamed for committing atrocities on the people here.
China President Xi Jinping’s favorite project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is going to pass through this area. Since this is a disputed area, China wants all legal aspects to be completed before CPEC is ready.
Efforts to change the situation
Pakistan has been trying to change the situation in this part for the last nearly a decade. For the first time in 2009, Pakistan started changing the situation in Gilgit-Baltistan. At that time, the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order was brought by the Pak government.
India has bluntly told Pakistan that Pakistan should give up all its illegal occupation on it and should not make any efforts to make any changes in Jammu and Kashmir.
India has repeatedly told Pakistan that its position on this entire issue was made clear in the proposal passed in Parliament in the year 1994. This proposal was unanimously passed by the Parliament of India. According to this, Pakistan or its judiciary has no right to make it illegal and forcible to occupy it.
Pak tried again in the year 2018
In the year 2018, Pakistan brought a new order. In this order, the earlier order was lifted. With this new order, efforts to make it the fifth province also intensified. In this order, Gilgit-Baltistan was approved to have its own provincial government. The ruling Prime Minister will have control of this government.
On behalf of the Government of India, it has been said that Gilgit-Baltistan has always been an integral part of India, and always will be. Some areas of Jammu and Kashmir are under illegal occupation of Pakistan. Any kind of unilateral manipulation is illegal in those areas and it will not be tolerated at all. With this order, the name of this part was changed from Northern Areas to Gilgit Baltistan.
Also read – what happened after that Bangladesh became many times bigger economy than Pakistan
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