Kashmiri leaders across LoC oppose move to merge Gilgit-Baltistan with Pakistan

Srinagar: Kashmiri leaders on both sides of the Line of Control have expressed serious concerns over the alleged proposal to make the Gilgit-Baltistan region of the Himalayan state the fifth province of Pakistan.

Unconfirmed reports from Islamabad say Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will hold a crucial meeting with his country’s top officials on January 14 to deliberate on the future of Gilgit-Baltistan.

In the backdrop of these reports, Pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader, Muhammad Yasin Malik, shot a letter to Sharif cautioning him against such a move and asserting it would only weaken the Kashmiri people’s ‘national cause’. Referring to the apprehensions that have been raised in various quarters that Sharif’s government may reach a consensus to merge Gilgit-Baltistan with Pakistan. Malik said that such a step would have implications on the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.

“If Pakistan imposes its sovereign writ over Gilgit-Baltistan, India will then have a political and moral right to integrate Kashmir with it. With one stroke, Pakistan will be helping India to consolidate its writ on Kashmir,” the letter says urging Nawaz Sharif to stay away from such a course of action.

The letter further says, “It is not only political wisdom that forces me make this appeal but also respect for the sentiments, sacrifices and aspirations of Kashmiri people.”

“If your government incorporates Gilgit-Baltistan into Pakistan, and if as a consequence, India consolidates its hold in Kashmir, this would amount to a bartering of people’s aspirations. Kashmir is not about territory. It is about rights of people,” the letter asserts adding, “Bartering these rights for land means killing the aspirations of people”.

Referring to media reports that the China-Pakistan corridor is forcing Islamabad to change the constitutional status of Gilgit-Baltistan, the JKLF leader has said in his letter that economic development is good “but you have no moral right to make a policy that will adversely affect the future of millions of Kashmiris.”

Recalling his meeting with Sharif in Lahore in 2009, Malik said, “I know you in personal capacity. When you met me in Lahore in 2009, you made some promises to me. I want to remind you of those promises. You clearly vindicated Kashmiri position on Gilgit-Baltistan and opposed any proposal that will change its legal or constitutional status”.

The letter then says, “I will also add that history is not made by small bargaining and territorial exchanges but by respecting the will of the people. The will of people in Kashmir is what everyone including your good self knows. History, morality and ethics dictate that will of people prevail”.

Islamic Students league patron Shakeel Ahmed Bakhshi issued a statement in Srinagar where he said that before the division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Leh-Kargil and Gurez were one united province of erstwhile state.

He alleged that the move to alter the status of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is rich in culture and heritage, loaded with huge natural resources with vast tourism potential and famous for International Silk Route, amounts to depriving people of Jammu and Kashmir of political, cultural and economical rights”.

Bakhshi further said that to fiddle with this status of Gilgit-Baltistan is same as New Delhi granting Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council which will ultimately lead to Union Territory status for Ladakh.

He also said that annexing Gilgit-Baltistan would be a clear signal to India to do same with Jammu and Kashmir.

“The second step of this conspiracy would be granting complete provincial status to Azad Kashmir (PoK). And, in this way they have agreed to roll back freedom struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Bakshi said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir as existed on August 14, 1947 is on the whole a disputed territory according to relevant UN resolutions and that by separating one part of the erstwhile state and absorbing it in another country amounts to huge treachery with the sacrifices of Kashmiris. He said the ISL will oppose tooth and nail such ‘conspiracies’.

An earlier report from Muzaffarabad had said that PoK prime minister Choudhary Abdul Majeed has warned the Nawaz Sharif-government against any attempt to convert Gilgit-Baltistan into a province of Pakistan. He urged Sharif to avoid taking any decision that does not fall in his jurisdiction, asserting that he cannot take this decision unless the people of Jammu and Kashmir agree to it.

PoK ‘President’ Muhammad Yaqoob Khan has also warned that such a step would be more damaging than the dismemberment of the country in 1971. He sought to remind Islamabad that Gilgit-Baltistan had been given in the administrative control of Pakistan on a temporary basis and advised the Sharif government not to think beyond that.