Pakistan's Ordinance Giving Internal Political Autonomy To Northern Jammu, Kashmir Means Little

The Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Ordinance 2009 was approved by Pakistan's Federal Cabinet last week. The Ordinance is directed towards granting internal political autonomy to the Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Ordinance, however, falls short of local demands and is only a change in nomenclature rather than genuine political reforms.

The 1949 ceasefire line resulted in the division of J&K with Pakistan gaining control over some portion of the disputed territory. Pakistan administered region of J&K was subsequently divided in 1970 into two administrative zones: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Federally Administered Northern Regions. AJK is constitutionally not a part of Pakistan and is governed by an elected President, Prime Minister and Legislature. Northern Areas are under the direct control of Islamabad and is ruled through a Northern Area Council headed by Pakistan's Minister for Kashmir Affairs.

The Empowerment Ordinance 2009, introduced as a replacement of the Northern Areas' Legal Framework Order 1994, completely overlooks the basic demands of the local population. The Northern Areas have been struggling to free itself from the control of the Pakistani Government for several decades. After years of judicial and legal ambivalence, the Government of Pakistan seeks to extend and reinforce its control over the Northern Areas through the alleged "reform package". The treatment meted out to the people of the Northern Areas for decades have made them skeptical of federal control.

The constitution of Pakistan and its map don't show the Northern Areas as belonging to Pakistan. At the same time Pakistan is not prepared to give the region an independent status or to enable its people to adopt a modern, transparent democratic system. Northern Areas thus have no politico-constitutional status. K2, the only weekly published in the Northern Areas, carries a message on its mast-head which succinctly summarizes the emotional state of the people in the Northern Areas; it reads 'Sarzamin -Be - Ain Ki Awaz' meaning "the voice of the constitution-less."

The people of Northern Areas do not have any justifiable fundamental rights since they are technically not citizens of Pakistan. The Frontier Crime Regulations is in force in the region under which every resident of the region has to report regularly to local intelligence personnel. The locals need an exit permit for moving out of the area.

Until 1994 the region had no elected assembly or even municipal bodies. In October 1994 first elections to the Northern Areas Executive Council were held and the Council continues to remain an advisory. In 1999 the Pakistan's Supreme Court in a landmark ruling directed the Pakistani government to extend basic rights to the people of Northern Areas within six months and treat them as Pakistani citizens. The judgment has not been implemented and in the 2001 elections across the country, the residents of Northern Areas were not granted voting rights. Thus the people of the Northern Areas do not have any representation in the Pakistan National Assembly.

Balawaristan National Front, under the Chairmanship of Abdul Hamid Khan has been protesting against the illegal Pakistani occupation of the Northern region while the Yasin Malik faction of the JKLF demands that the Northern areas, along with rest of J&K, be given the right of self-determination. According to Amir Humza, a leader from Gilgit, "It is a fact that people of this region (Northern Areas) are facing more human rights violations and whenever the official media talks of repression in Indian Kashmir, people with strong hearts laugh at this hypocritical attitude and people with weak hearts cry."

The local population was not consulted at any stage of drafting the Empowerment Ordinance. A committee under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Kashmir and Northern Areas has prepared the "reform" package. Post of the Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (KANA) will continue to co-exist with newly created position of the Governor. Thus the executive authority of the newly christened Gilgit-Baltistan region will continue to rest with federal agents. No concrete commitment has been made with regard to the timing of the elections to actualize a large part of the reform package. The move could also impact Pakistan's stand on the wider Jammu and Kashmir dispute with India. Pakistan has always emphasized on resolving the J&K dispute by ascertaining the wishes of the people of J&K, making the unilateral transformation with regard to the politico-legal status of the Northern Areas a diplomatic gaffe.

Amanullah Khan, leader of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, rejected the package, saying it appeared to be aimed at merging the disputed areas into Pakistan. According to Jammu and Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP) president Liaqat Hayyat, the Empowerment Ordinance is "nothing but a little joke to the people of this region and the state of Jammu (and) Kashmir."

Pakistan's move is doubly problematic: apart from under-addressing the anxiety of the people of the Northern Areas, the Empowerment Ordinance has further complicated the politico-legal dimensions of the J&K dispute. Complete silence on the part of the international community and India on the issue gives the impression that the LOC has been accepted as fait accompli and Pakistan sovereign right over Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas is implicitly accepted.

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Comments

[Tenjikuronin]

Pakistan needs to stop oppressing Kashmiris.

[amitrhodes]

i never knew about the repressions in gilgit. Its eye opening piece.
So often govts get caught in diplomacy and ignore the plight of common man.

I dont really care where pok & gilgit end up... i just hope ppl who live there have a more comfortable lives...

[Sikander]

This article is a complete fabrication and overlooks the basic fact that Gilgit Baltistan has been trying to join Pakistan proper for a long time and if anything the criticism has been on Pakistan government for not giving complete provincial status to Gilgit Baltistan.
Anyone who is remotely familiar with Gilgit Baltistan and its people and not a biased Indian like Madhavi Bhasin knows that this area wants to merge with Pakistan but because of the reasons of international law Pakistan is waiting for India to agree to a referendum in the whole region of pre 1947 state of Jammu & Kashmir but India is not allowing this to happen hence putting Gilgit Baltistan and other areas of Jammu and Kashmir in limbo. All Pakistan government is trying to do is to relieve some of the pain by giving the people of this self rule and province like powers with a legislative assembly, a chief minister directly elected by the people of Gilgit Baltistan. If this is not a right step towards complete democracy than what is??

http://real-politique.blogspot.com

[Madhavi Bhasin - Huffpost Blogger]

If this is a step towards complete democracy then can you point to the number of reps from Gilgit Baltistan that would be allowed representation in the National Assembly. Moreover, BNF, JKNAP and K2 are voices of the people of the region and not India. The Government of India has maintained a strange silence, something that I object to, on the issue. This could have been a great opportunity for the Government of India to raise objections aganist the Pakistani move.

[kashmiri]

Why should India object?

As the Kashmiri separatist organizations have (correctly) pointed out, this ordinance is yet another sign of Pakistan's begrudging acceptance of the status quo in J&K. Azad Kashmir & the Northern Areas were not officially incorporated into Pakistan for 62 years because it was claimed that doing so would jeopardize the government's claim that J&K's final status was still undetermined. A move like this just serves to further absorb that territory into Pakistan. If anything, this just gives India more fodder to support its own occupation of Kashmiri territories.

While I certainly do appreciate efforts to afford the long-suffering people of Gilgit/Baltistan greater participation in the democratic process (even if it does ultimately fall short), it is unfortunate to see Kashmir losing its major advocate in the international arena. This may prove to be yet another nail in the coffin of the basic democratic rights of the Kashmiri people.

[Strategy]

As sectarian violence has rocked Karachi, eyes have naturally turned to the Northern Areas. Gilgit and other parts have been under a curfew after mass protests and violent incidents.

Pakistan’s treatment of Kashmiris in its own territory goes largely unnoticed, even within its own country. The international community should give General Musharraf a much required gift – a mirror.

[Strategy]

Gen. Musharraf started a policy of bringing in Punjabis and Pakhtoons from outside and settling them down in Gilgit and Baltistan in order to reduce the Kashmiri Shias to a minority in their traditional land and this is continuing till today. The “Friday Times” of October 15-21, 1992, quoted Mr. Muhammad Yahya Shah, a local Shia leader, as saying: ” We were ruled by the Whites during the British days. We are now being ruled by the Browns from the plains. The rapid settling-in of Punjabis and Pakhtoons from outside, particularly the trading classes, has created a sense of acute insecurity among the local Shias.”

Zia became the first victim of the carnage unleashed by Gen. Musharraf on the Shias of Gilgit. Though the Pakistani authorities have not released the report of the committee, which enquired into the crash of Zia’s plane in August,1988, it is widely believed in Pakistan that a Shia airman from Gilgit, wanting to take revenge for the May,1988, carnage, was responsible for the crash. [Really Bites]

Since then the repression has continued with less-bloody but no less heavy handed means. Along with a state-sponsored transmigration of ethnic Punjabi and Sunni serving and retired military personnel, successive regimes in Islamabad have implemented changes in the curriculum that are less than tolerant of Shias. Needless to say, this has kept the Northern Areas in constant ferment.

contd.

[Strategy]

Musharraf – Butcher of Gilgit? In May,1988, the Shias, who are in a majority in Gilgit, rose in revolt against the Sunni-dominated administration. Zia put an SSG group commanded by Gen. Musharraf in charge of suppressing the revolt. Gen. Musharraf transported a large number of Wahabi Pakhtoon tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan, commanded by bin Laden, to Gilgit to teach the Shias a lesson. These tribesmen under bin Laden massacred hundreds of Shias.

In its issue of May,1990, “Herald”, the monthly journal of the “Dawn” group of publications of Karachi, wrote as follows: ” In May,1988, low-intensity political rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along the Karakoram Highway. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses, lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The number of dead and injured was put in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact it has left on these peaceful valleys.”

contd.

[Strategy]

Always quick to allege that India is engaging in state-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, Pakistan has been long hiding its own systematic repression of the Kashmiri people through an insidious administrative trick. It has split its portion of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two administrative units: the more well-known ‘Azad Kashmir’ province and the lesser known ‘Northern Areas’ of Gilgit and Baltistan. The Northern Areas are in a political limbo – they are not formally a part of Pakistan – which means they are not represented in the federal parliament, and constantly under the thumb of governors sent down from Islamabad.

That the Northern Areas have a Shia majority did not help – especially after General Zia-ul-Haq unleashed his vision of a fundamentalist Islamic nation. The people of the Northern Areas were massacred when they rose against Islamabad’s repressive rule during Zia’s time. The Pakistani armed forces who actually carried out the massacre were led among others by one Brigadier Pervez Musharraf.
contd.