Opposition Leader warn of taking to streets if GB government failed to mend its ways
Kiran Qasim and Shireen Karim
GILGIT: Opposition Leader Captain (r) Muhammad Shafi warn of taking to streets, if the government of Gilgit-Baltistan failed to mend its ways.
In an exclusive interview to Pamir Times, Shafi said that if the government failed to withdraw the taxes by using political ways then we will not have any other option but to take people to streets.
“We will not accept imposition of any tax until the people of Gilgit-Baltistan were given due constitutional rights. We had the same stance during the meeting of opposition members with Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan”, he clarified.
Shafi said none of the opposition member was supporting imposition of any taxes in Gilgit-Baltistan. He further clarified that during the meeting with CM opposition members had agreed to present the case of GB to federal government and convince them to amend the tax adaptation act 2012. We had convinced CM to amend the tax adaptation act 2012 by imposing taxes only on non-local companies and contractors and exclude the people of GB from the tax net, he added. Opposition will not accept any tax in Gilgit-Baltistan, imposed either on poor or on rich, he claimed.
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We will now start demanding the revival of state subject rule in Gilgit-Baltistan and also enforce all taxes on people who were using the fake domiciles of Gilgit-Baltistan, Opposition leader further added.
Responding to a question on a recent statement of Minister Kashmir Affair and Gilgit-Baltistan Barjees Tahir in Skardu, he said the statement exposed the lies, status and power of the provincial government. He said if the government is lacking the power to withdraw taxes then we have the option to bring the people of GB on streets to demand the withdrawal of taxes. If the tax issue were not resolved politically through assembly floor then we will bring people on streets, Da Gaz Da Maidan, he warned.
He said the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly is powerless and the ministers were crying for lack of power, the secretaries and departments were even not following their instructions. If the assembly lacks the power, the people of GB are powerful enough and it is evident that the local people led the independence from Dogra Raj and annexed the region with Pakistan, he said.
While showing his dissatisfaction over NAB’s performance, he said NAB has hardly arrested few forest officials. They have not yet taken notice of the corruptions in Education, Health, Excise and Taxation and other departments, he added.
He rejected the claims of government and said that there is 10-12 hours load shedding in Gilgit.
Captain (r) Muhammad Shafi said the government has failed to provide enough electricity to light a single bulb but the claim is that CPEC will change the destiny of Gilgit-Baltistan through economic zone and increasing business activities. He questioned that how CPEC will change our destiny if we don’t even have enough electricity for a single light in every home.
He said the government should show us the notification of any concrete project as part of CPEC, if any.
We will not tolerate if CPEC were used as a cover to occupy the owned lands of local communities, he threatened. He said participation of GB in CPEC related meetings were as an observer and our CM is even excluded from the most important meetings. The response of Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Mushahid Hussain Syed to my question was that he cannot violate the constitution of Pakistan by including GB as a constitutional part in the CPEC Committee, he added.
