The twelfth meeting of IPS’ working group on Kashmir was held with special reference to the status of Gilgit-Baltistan on October 26, 2020.
The meeting was chaired by Executive President IPS Khalid Rahman and participated by Farzana Yaqoob, IPS associate and general secretary, IPS-Working Group on Kashmir (IPS-WGK), Ambassador (r) Syed Ishtiaq Hussain Andrabi, Ambassador (r) Tajammul Altaf, Advocate Nasir Qadri, international law expert from Legal Forum for Oppressed Voices of Kashmir (LFOVK) and GM-IPS Naufil Shahrukh, among others.
Sharing his views on the recent decision taken by the GoP to grant provisional provincial status to the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Rahman opined that the steps reflected the aspirations of the local populace and were very much in line with their longstanding demand for administrative, political and economic reforms. He said that the measures will not only strengthen the trust of locals on the Government, but will also satisfy the regions socio-economic and political needs.
The speaker was however critical of the way the announcement regarding the status of GB was made, stressing that the issue was very sensitive in nature and hence demanded a much better strategy with improved homework, careful political discussions, well-devised mechanisms and prior agreement of all concerned stakeholders, the absence of all of which could create issues in the future.
Rahman also shared some suggestions over the issue going forward including the allotment of more seats to GB in the parliament than the seats reserved by India for Jammu and Kashmir in its parliament, conducting a referendum under the supervision of an independent international organization like the UN, EU or OIC to ascertain the opinion and wishes of the people of GB over the issue, and the declaration of AJ&K as a government in exile followed up with a call for representation in UN, OIC or other international platforms
Qadri was of the opinion that legally speaking, GB’s status was a very serious and complex issue. He said that If there were any economic interests of the state of Pakistan in GB, there were better ways to handle it while keeping it under the same status quo. Even if there were any concerns from the China’s end, GoP could have signed an agreement with China without disturbing the special status of the area.
Speaking about the proposals presented by Rahman, Qadri said that the idea of putting up AJ&K government in exile was not viable in terms of international law. Instead of disturbing the present status quo in one way or the other, the GoP should rather try to find a way to satisfy the economic demands of the people of GB without making major constitutional amendments, or at least without making them public. The speaker felt that a better approach to address the socio-economic demands of the people of GB could have been adopted by empowering them with a special ordinance instead of making grand scale constitutional changes, which according to the speaker, could lead to some legal constraints going forward.
Abrar also spoke somewhat on the same lines, maintaining that as much as there is a need for taking timely steps, GoP should also avoid making any hasty decisions. It could rather have waited for upcoming elections in GB, after which it would have been in a much better position to deal with issue cogently.
