The Government of India withdrew the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019. Today this decision has been completed for 2 years. In response to this, now Pakistan has also started the exercise of making Gilgit-Baltistan a separate province. Pakistani media reports have claimed that Pakistan has started work on a law to make Gilgit-Baltistan a province.
India has made it clear that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including Gilgit-Baltistan, are an integral part of India. Pakistan cannot justify its encroachment. India claims that the illegal and forcibly occupied territories do not come under the jurisdiction of the Government of Pakistan or its judiciary. Let us know why Gilgit-Baltistan is so important to us? How big is this area than PoK? What will this change?
Pakistan's Ministry of Law and Justice has drafted the law, which is being called the 26th Constitution Amendment Bill. According to Pakistan's newspaper Dawn, the proposed law seeks to abolish the Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) of Gilgit-Baltistan and merge the region's election commission with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
According to Dawn's report, this draft bill is ready and is currently with Prime Minister Imran Khan. This draft bill has been made keeping in mind the Constitution of Pakistan, international law and UN resolutions on Kashmir, constitutional laws, and local law. The governments of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK have also been consulted before drafting the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill.
As far as the UN is concerned, it has passed a resolution to maintain the status quo in the whole of Kashmir. Along with this, taking public opinion has advocated for the resolution of the dispute. But the UK Parliament passed a resolution in 2017 saying that Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India and Pakistan has illegally occupied it since 1947.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has changed the dynamics of the region. Pakistan gifted a part of Gilgit-Baltistan to China in 1963, a year after the India-China war. It covers an area of about 5,000 to 8,000 sq km.
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