Page 25 - Seniors Today - Oct 2019

of Northern Areas which will be impounded Over the years the people of Gilgit and
in these dams being natural property of POK,
royalty should be paid for it. To get around this
problem, the Pakistan Government toyed with
the idea of incorporating this region with the
NWFP. This plan had to be given up because
of the order of its own Supreme Court which
declared Northern Areas to be part of Jammu &
Kashmir occupied with opposition of its people.
The local population has alleged that they were
not consulted before the National Assembly
Committee finally recommended that in
Diamer District of the Northern Areas, the main
dam, 290 m high, be constructed since stiff
opposition from NWFP, Baluchistan and Sindh
had forced the Federal Government to abandon
the proposed Kalabagh Dam. The Northen
Areas opposition had stated that construction of
these dams would submerge over 27000 acres
of land, obliterate 32 villages and displace over
30,000 persons. Gone forever would be the
bustling city of Skardu and the ancient town of
Chilas. Perhaps Pakistan also wants to wipe out
traces of the Hindu and Buddhist heritage of
the area, including chortans and stupas in ruin,
engravings on rocks of Buddha, Bodhisatvas
and many symbols of Buddhist faith and Hindu
rituals.
Objection to dam
A week before the foundation of the dam was
laid by Gen Musharraf in April 2006, the Indian
Government objected to its construction on
territory which was legally and constitutionally
part of Jammu & Kashmir State before Pakistan
forcibly occupied it. Earlier in 1974, Syed Mir
Qasim, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir had
made a detailed “statement of facts” on Gilgit
and Baltistan in J&K Legislative Assembly on
28th September demolishing Pakistan claim.
On September 25, 1974, the Indian Government
denounced merger of Principality of Humza
into the “Northern Areas of Pakistan”, which
Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto had made a day
earlier in Pakistan National Assembly. In 1969
when Sino-Pak Karakoram Highway was
thrown open for traffic, India had lodged its
formal protest, which Pakistan brushed aside.
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Baltistan had felt disowned and uncared
for by people on this side of LOC. There had
been murmurs inside the territory but its
people in rest of Pakistan and abroad used to
articulate their disappointment and even anger
at Kashmiris who had not bothered about
them. Even before the Kargil misadventure,
Gilgit Baltistan Peoples had sent an appeal to
“our Kashmiri brethren” and to newspapers
in Jammu & Kashmir. Many newspapers had
published this appeal in Urdu in March 1998.
As late as April 2006, the Hurriyat Conference
seemed to have woken up to reality. On April
21, 2006 a newspaper report claimed that the
APHC had asked Pakistan to desist from laying
claim to Gilgit and Baltistan areas because
APHC considers this claim “big roadblock in
finding a solution of Kashmir issue”.
In 2009, Asif Ali Zardari signed a self-
governance order and the area was granted
limited autonomy and renamed Gilgit-Baltistan.
However, the real power rests with the governor
and not with chief minister or elected assembly.
Over the years the Pakistani government has
rejected Gilgit-Baltistani calls for integration
within Pakistan as the 5th. Province on the
grounds that it would jeopardise its demands
for the whole Kashmir issue to be resolved
according to UN resolution.
We, in India, claim that all areas of Jammu
& Kashmir illegally and forcibly occupied by
Pakistan are legally and constitutionally part of
the Indian Union. Then it follows that residents
of those areas are Indian citizens. It therefore
becomes the responsibility of the Indian
Government to protect their interest and to
ensure that they enjoy all rights that are enjoyed
by their compatriots living on this side of the
Line of Control.
The junction of the Karakoram, Hindu Kush & Himalayan Ranges
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