November 1, 2003 ☼ Foreign Affairs
Gilgit-Baltistan in a limbo: After independence somehow (Gilgit-Baltistan) was conjoined to the Kashmir dispute. The people of the area accepted the challenge to remain part of the conflict to vote for Pakistan in the event of a plebiscite on the future of Kashmir. The people instead of being rewarded were denied the basic political right to vote and run their own affairs. Unfortunately the area neither became part of Pakistan nor of the Azad Kashmir setup. The government of Pakistan initially ran the administration from NWFP with the help of the local Rajas through FCR and later via Ministry of Kashmir affairs and the Northern Areas (KANA). A grade 19/20 bureaucrat used to head the local administration and functioned as one-man head of judiciary.This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
This is probably the best counter-point to Pakistan’s persistant harping on the ‘principle of self-determination’.
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