Gilgit-Baltistan order

The long wait for full citizenship for the residents of Gilgit-Baltistan has finally ended after the local government formally promulgated the Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018. This order devolves most administrative and financial powers to the area and guarantees its residents all constitutional protections, including access to regular courts. The journey to this point has been a rocky one. Ever since joining Pakistan in 1947, the residents of Gilgit-Baltistan were ruled by remote control from Islamabad. It took much agitation for their rights to even get the federal government to agree to something as basic as changing its official name from the Northern Areas to Gilgit-Baltistan, something which only happened in 2009 when the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order was introduced. That reform gave Gilgit-Baltistan provincial status, a chief minister and a governor for the first time. Further reform came earlier this year when the government abolished the Gilgit-Baltistan Council – a body whose members were mostly appointed by the centre and which acted as the de-facto ruler of the area. Part of the reason Gilgit-Baltistan has had an unequal status for much of its history is because India still lays claim to the territory but, as with Fata, its residents have also been alienated by a centre that dictated how the area would be governed without taking the wishes of its people into account.

The new order is notable for transferring all powers that were previously held by the unaccountable Gilgit-Baltistan Council to the elected legislative assembly. There will now be no official role in the area for the Kashmir Affairs Ministry, which previously was used to impose the dictates of the centre. The assembly will have the power, like every other provincial assembly, to appoint judges and Gilgit-Baltistan will now be a member of the Economic Coordination Committee and Council of Common Interests. There has been some criticism that the order still vests too much power in the prime minister. It is true that the prime minister has powers in Gilgit-Baltistan that he or she does not have in other provinces. Opposition members in the assembly staged a protest against the order precisely because of this objection. However, that is not a reason to reject the order outright. What is now needed is for the newly-empowered assembly to fix any problems that still exist in the order. The struggle for basic citizenship that has been waged by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in the face of often violent opposition from the centre is a reminder that citizens still have the power to shape their own destiny. The struggle is not over as dissidents in the area still face persecution from the government but the promulgation of this bill shows that years of activism and hard work will eventually yield results.