India protests Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan order

India protests Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan order

News:

1. Pakistan has proposed to integrate Gilgit-Baltistan(disputed) region into federal structure of Pakistan by granting it provincial status.

Important Facts:

2. The executive order from Pakistan’s Prime Minister proposes to begin legislative, judicial and administrative measures to integrate Gilgit-Baltistan with the rest of the federal structure of Pakistan.
3. India summoned the Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner as a mark of protest.

4.Right now, Pakistan’s National Assembly receives representation from five provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Gilgit-Baltistan region is excluded which remains on the Pakistani side following the war of 1947 and is governed directly from Islamabad.

5. The official Indian statement observed that:
   (i)The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir which also includes the so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ areas is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in 1947.
   (ii)Any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under forcible and illegal occupation of Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever, and is completely unacceptable.
   (iii)This order is against the position of the Indian Parliament which in 1994 passed a resolution in support of India’s claims over the undivided Jammu and Kashmir.
   (iv)This can neither hide the illegal occupation of part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan nor the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom to the people residing in Pakistan occupied territories for the past seven decades,

6.The work on (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)CPEC, passing through the region has prompted the change of status for Gilgit Baltistan.

7.Afghan government has rejected another proposal of the Pakistan National Assembly. The proposal seeks the merger of FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.