Nov 04, 2013

Gilgit Baltistan: System Of Governance Challenged


During a briefing of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan, chairman Manzoor Hussain Parwana of the Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement challenged the system by which the region of Gilgit Baltistan is ruled. 

Below is an article by: BrooshalTimes.

Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement (GBUM) chairman Manzoor Hussain Parwana has said the governance system in the region was being run under a presidential order and calling the assembly a legislative assembly is totally misleading and out of context.

Briefing a delegation of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), he said that part from the directions given in the presidential order the assembly can neither legislate on any issue nor can make any law to get an important issue of national importance implemented. Mr Parwana gave a detailed briefing to the delegation about the geo-strategic importance and political situation of the area.

He said Giglit-Baltistan was situated among four nuclear countries but its two million people were still deprived of their basic rights even in the 21st century.

He said the people of the region despite fighting successfully their freedom over six decades back were still enslaved in the hands of outsider powers who decided their fate.

The GBUM chief told the delegation that though the area was under the administrative control of Pakistan, the people of the area were not part of any constitution of any country. Due to the lack of constitutional ambiguity, he added, human rights violations remained unchecked.

He said there was no independent judiciary that can provide justice to the victims of human rights violations. The judges were appointed by Pakistan on the basis of political and other considerations. The latest example of this was the appointment of a sitting minister of the area as the judge of the higher judiciary of the area, he added.

Mr Parwana said that during the last over six decades Islamabad ruled the area but could not make it part of Pakistan and can never merge it into Pakistan as the territory was still disputed under the agenda of the United Nations. He said that under the current circumstances it had become imperative that the region should be given the status of a separate state, so that the indigenous people can manage their affairs on their own and utilize their resources as they wished.