Political Parties of Gilgit-Baltistan Reach Broad Consensus on Interim Constitutional Province Status; Special Committee to Compile and Submit Comprehensive Proposals to Prime Minister
GILGIT: Amjad Hussain, the chief minister of the government of the autonomous region of Gilgit-Baltistan (GIB), has stressed the need to give GIB the status of an interim constitutional province with the rightful share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award in order to achieve sustainable economic stability in the region.
The demand was reiterated in a high-level meeting of a special committee set up to resolve the GB’s constitutional and economic issues, which saw the leaders discuss proposals on administrative integration and financial autonomy for GB in great detail.The key highlights of the Committee Review and Gilgit-Baltistan Consensus are as follows: Chief Minister’s Demands:
The Chief Minister Amjad Hussain said that people of Gilgit-Baltistan were long suffering due to administrative uncertainty for 78 years while local political parties have now been fully united on a common agenda of the national mainstream. He called for provisional provincial status,
The allocation of finances under the NFC, and the construction of an international airport at Gilgit to develop tourism and trade. The GB chief minister’s position received strong support from the federal ministers for Planning, Ahsan Iqbal and Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman, as well as the committee set up for the matter.
Ahsan Iqbal repeated that the long pending problems in the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan are also still one of the top priorities of the federal government and the special committee will prepare a detailed report on constitutional, economic and development recommendations for the prime minister.Background of the Assembly Resolution:
This is based on the unanimous resolution passed in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly earlier this year in July. The resolution clearly stated that GB should be represented in the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan, be incorporated in the Constitution of Pakistan (without affecting the Kashmir issue) and have a fair share in the national resources.