JK NEWS TODAY
Jammu, July 31:
The Assembly elections in Gilgit-Baltistan under the illegal occupation of Pakistan were postponed a fortnight ago from August 18 to October . This was due to the complex political situation that has developed in the beautiful region because the locals are reluctant to accept the continuation of direct rule from Islamabad and their political disempowerment .
Islamabad is living in a make-believe world of its own , thinking that its all-weather friendship with China and its military power can silence the people of the region forever . But that is not going to be the case, for the people of GB have seen that how the UT of Ladakh of which they are part legally and constitutionally as their region is part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir are enjoying their new status in which their long pending aspirations have been fulfilled .
The state had acceded to India legally . That position can neither be reversed by any military might nor under the garb of “ Kashmir dispute” pending In the United Nations because of the security council resolutions of 1948-49.
Ladakh was declared as a Union Territory on August 5 last year , separating it from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It fulfilled a decades-old demand of the people of Ladakh who already have two hill councils , one each for the districts of Leh and Kargil and they enjoy tremendous powers and control the administrative affairs . With the region getting UT status , all major centrally sponsored schemes and their benefits have reached at the doorsteps of the people . Their dreams have come true .
Since Ladakh has suzerainty over Gilgit-Baltistan , new aspirations have got embedded among the people of that part of Ladakh that unnaturally and illegally lies across the Line of Control . They have given voice to their political aspirations and that would have gone against the plans of Islamabad to control everything there by its puppets. That is the real reason for the postponement of the elections as their political assertion, if realized, would upset Islamabad’s apple cart in the region that has become so critical for its economy and maintenance of its friendship with China .
Even Pakistani media has pointed out the mess that Pakistani establishment has created in Gilgit -Baltistan . The media has admitted that the young and educated population in G B is asking for its rights , but these have not been accorded to them. And that is one of the reasons that the Pakistani establishment is uncertain about the poll process and its outcome, hence postponed.
