Disputed Gilgit Baltistan: An Ineluctable Dystopia and a Skeptical Paradox

By Ashiq Hussain Raki 

Gilgit Baltistan has been a contested terrain for more than 70 years. Since the ouster of Dogra regime from Gilgit Baltistan by locals, without any foreign assistance, and the subsequent establishment of ceasefire between both contestants in 1948, there have been numerous proposals for resolving Kashmir issue, of which Gilgit-Baltistan has been made a part. For example, the UN resolution number thirty nine (1948) promised to hold a full scale plebiscite to determine the fate of the people of Kashmir. But, after four major wars and numerous rounds of negotiations between both enemy countries, no solution has yet come out to resolve the issue according to the aspirations of the indigenous people It is also very evident that if and when the promise of plebiscite under UNCIP is held in this region, Gilgit Baltistan without any second thought will opt for Pakistan, because the people of this region are very much familiar with the emerging ethno-nationalist surge in India and its Hindutva Majoritarianism wave which has enveloped entire India. Moreover, the term India is taken as a slang in Gilgit Baltistan!

On the other hand, in recent years, the people and political elites of Gilgit Baltistan have started an enhanced campaign and are publicly slating the intermediary  diplomatic role (or the lack of it) of UN and its UNCIP. The new strategy has begun in earnest, all federalist and anti-federalist political parties with their varied manifestos are canvassing the people to support their respective party. However, one commonality can be widely observed between all political parties, with all of them proclaiming to ensure the very statutory rights of the masses of Gilgit Baltistan, along with endorsement of UN resolutions, and improved political status.

Although, Gilgit Baltistan is head over heels in love with Pakistan but unfortunately it is not a de-jure constitutional part of Pakistan, so far. The government of Pakistan has assumed the role as administrator of the region since the ceasefire.

Since then, various governments of Pakistan have taken some steps to satiate the very grievances of the region by promulgating some reforms and political packages to influence Gilgit Baltistan politically, socially and economically. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto brought some administrative reforms in Northern areas, he was followed by Benazir Bhutto and she introduced LFO (Legal Framework Order) in 1994 fulfilling a popular demand of the region. General Pervaiz Musharaf after coming to power introduced some alterations in legislative body of Gilgit Baltistan.  Finally, Asif Ali Zardari introduced a comparatively comprehensive political package known as Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order 2009. This was followed by the 2018 Governance Order by Pakistan Muslim league and there are reports about yet another ‘governance order’ being in the air. People are, however, increasingly questioning the legality of Pakistan’s reform-regimes, demanding internal autonomy and a constituent assembly, with the power to rule the region relatively freely.

However, any legal criterion for amelioration of the political legality of the region is still far from satisfactory. Pakistan has no other options but to act like Penelope’s web.

Majority of the region’s people feel betrayed. What they seek is legality and equal share in the mainstream political arena of Pakistan. For the locals, the term ‘disputed’ is nothing more than a political paradox and a grave dystopia to keep them deprived of the freedom they won from the Dogra occupiers.  Furthermore, the locals believe in the notion that War makes State, and according to them they have won that war decisively 70 years ago.

Thus, this impasse since 70 years has led Gilgit Baltistan to seek alternative options for their due rights; they are bitterly disillusioned by UN and it UNCIP process and the once made promises for a better future. Instead they are seeking alternative channels to resolve the issue. The term “disputed” is an albatross around their neck, hanging for over 70 years; they want to get rid of it.

More astonishingly, a popular wave of radical and post colonial rhetoric is reverberating and revamping throughout the region, particularly the youth of Gilgit Baltistan believe that they have been treated as foreigners in the land of their own birth.

Following 9/11, United Nations has lost its credibility as the arbiter organization of the world; once again the iron fist is becoming the Draconian law of the world, which has also created distrust, skepticism and doubt in the minds of the people of Gilgit Baltistan regarding the role of UN.

According to many local intellectuals UN is toothless and impotent to resolve this issue; some even go further and believe that UN is biased against the weak and unrepresented strata of the world, especially residents of irredentist regions like their own. They are deducing that the Magana Carta of this world is that might is right. And, for them, it is like Thucydides’s maxim, “Strong can do whatever it wants and the weak have to suffer what it must”.

The contributor is a student at the Department of International Relations,  Karakoram International University, Gilgit.