Gilgit-Baltistan remains under Pakistani occupation despite its legal accession to India in 1947. Pakistan’s demographic engineering, sectarian manipulation, and denial of local rights erode indigenous identity. Nationalists demand reinstatement of state subject rule, legislative autonomy, and reunification with India to secure cultural survival, resource control, and democratic self-determination.
In a few months, Pakistan will hold assembly elections in the occupied territory of Gilgit-Baltistan. This vast but thinly populated area, bordering China and Afghanistan, is the northern province of the princely state of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, which acceded to India on 26 October 1947. In 2019, India reorganised Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as two union territories. The Union Territory of Ladakh currently includes Gilgit-Baltistan.
Locals continue to remind Pakistan of the United Nations Security Council resolution, which requires the removal of all Pakistani citizens from Gilgit-Baltistan in order to amicably resolve this chronic dispute with India. The audacious Pakistani colonial overlords have not only ignored such warnings, but also seized local lands and appointed their own bureaucracy to conduct sham elections to elect representatives on behalf of the residents of this area. India has consistently protested Pakistani bid to establish its control over Gilgit Baltistan.
Previously, the nationalists boycotted elections in Gilgit-Baltistan because the local electoral commission requires all candidates to sign a vow of allegiance to Pakistan. In their defence, nationalists contend that since Gilgit-Baltistan is not legally a part of Pakistan and falls beyond its constitutional ambit, forcing local residents to pledge loyalty to a foreign country is not only unethical and unconstitutional but also violative of Islamic principles.
This time, however, the nationalist coalition has resolved to field candidates in all constituencies. They have decided to involve themselves in the process since such sham process, in reality, empowers Pakistani puppets with the ability to fill the political vacuum, control funds, and misappropriate true national identity.
The patrons in the military establishment have traditionally enabled Pakistani political parties such as the Muslim League, Tehrik-i-Insaf, and People’s Party to dominate electoral politics in the terrain and form local governments, which function as springboard for Pakistani Pashtuns, Hindkowal, and Punjabis to spawn illegal settlements in the occupied territory.
Lately, the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP), which represent Pakistani Pashtuns, have gained traction in Gilgit-Baltistan. Their expansion would inevitably engender conflict with local nationalists in towns like Skardu, Gilgit, Chilas, and Gahkuch. In addition to creating racial tensions, Pakistani settlers use the sectarian split between Shias and Sunnis as a rallying cry to spread their tentacles. The Pakistani military utilises such clashes to extend and solidify its influence in the region.
The inverse effect of state-sponsored Sunni colonisation may be seen in Gilgit, Skardu and Shigar, where local Shias are selling land to Pakistani Shias to maintain sectarian balance. However, in the long run, such measures would help neither the local Sunnis nor the local Shiites, and will eventually reduce indigenous Shina, Balti, and Burushaski speakers to a minority in their ancestral districts.
During the partition of India, the locals let Pakistan occupy Gilgit, believing in the Pakistani propaganda that their doing so would protect their Islamic identity against Hindus, despite the fact that India had recognised Gilgit as its constitutional part with equal citizenship for all residents without any bias for any particular community.
Pakistan did not occupy Gilgit to serve or protect Islam. Pakistan used Islam to pilfer natural resources, fuel terrorism and assassinate indigenous Shias, thereby destroying both land and social fabric. Now Pakistan's involvement in the Middle East, particularly the prospects of sending troops to assist Arabs fight Iranian proxies, will exacerbate the existing sectarian rift in Gilgit-Baltistan.
After 78 years of deprivation and oppression, majority of the locals have fallen prey to Pakistani machinations. They are busy cutting their own roots without realising that Pakistani Shia and Sunni settlers have no loyalty to the land of Gilgit-Baltistan and regard indigenous languages and customs as primitive. As per their plans, the settlers work with the military subjugators to increase their numbers and protect their long-term survival and financial interests.
The illegal settlers support Pakistani policy of prohibiting the teaching of native languages in schools and imposing reading material from Punjab textbook board on local students. With their languages and traditions gone, the locals will lose their fight to prove and maintain their innate link and control over the ancestral lands. Instead of relying on Pakistani Shias and Sunnis for survival, locals should band together to force Pakistan to honour the UNCIP resolutions and leave Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK).
The reinstatement of state subject rule (SSR) in Gilgit-Baltistan is the key demand of the nationalists and even leaders in the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Shri Hari Singh Ji, the local Maharaja, established the SSR in 1927 to conserve indigenous lands, businesses and cultures. The SSR forbids Pakistanis, Chinese, and other foreigners from acquiring local land given that Gilgit-Baltistan is not a constitutional part of these countries.
The SSR is still in effect in the ten southern districts of the part of Pakistan-occupied Jammu-Kashmir, often known as the so-called “Azad” Kashmir or AJK. It was deliberately violated in the northern ten districts of Gilgit-Baltistan after Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Bhutto issued an unconstitutional decree to disband it in 1973. To better protect local areas and ethnic communities, nationalists also call for the repeal of two separate AJK and GB Councils and the establishment of a single body representing the entire POJK.
So far, Pakistan has barred locals from receiving royalties on natural resources, as well as revenue from transit and trade with China and Central Asian Republics, claiming that such rights are exclusively reserved for Pakistani provinces. However, the so-called “Azad” Kashmir is not a province of Pakistan, yet the Pakistani government is willing to give AJK royalties and a share from the national financial commission. These excuses reveal occupiers’ dishonest intention to profit from Gilgit without having to pay for it.
The upcoming assembly elections will be meaningless until Gilgit-Baltistan has its own provisional constitution and the assembly has authority to legislate over resources and means of production as well as collect transit tolls and taxes. At the moment, Pakistan manages Gilgit with paltry grants and ad-hoc handouts, and when the administration runs out of funds, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan has to rush to Islamabad to beg for more. The region's annual development budget allocation of twenty billion rupees is insufficient to build even one decent-sized hospital. Local employees in departments such as education, health, transportation, and water and power sometimes wait for months for their wages since Gilgit assembly lacks control over revenues to cover such expenses.
Pakistan would never allow Gilgit residents to control their own territory and exercise legislative autonomy since this would force Islamabad to seek local authorisation to profit from resources and collect revenue on transit to China. Islamabad prefers to continue with its policy of demographic engineering and illegal colonies, and employ divide and rule techniques to maintain absolute dominance over the region.
At the same time, it encourages Chinese, American, and European businesses to illegally exploit local resources, complicating and weakening stakeholder claims and interests. The Western nations, who claim to be champions of human rights, have so far avoided urging Pakistan to stop the charade and withdraw from a land that is legitimately Indian.
There are 56 Muslim nations on the planet, yet none of them has supported Gilgit-Baltistan against Pakistan’s crimes during the last 78 years. Since Pakistan invaded Gilgit, Islamic multilateral groups such as the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GGC) have held hundreds of sessions and summits, yet failed to pass a single resolution condemning Pakistan’s atrocities in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Gilgit is known as the world's last colony, and Pakistan's ouster will bring an end to colonialism. Many inhabitants now recognise that the only way out of this misery and obtaining a respectable and meaningful life is reuniting Gilgit-Baltistan with India — the country that had awarded the locals full constitutional and equal citizenship rights in 1947.
With renewed strategic commitment from global leaders, Pakistani military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir has reignited Jihad in Kashmir and the consequences will undoubtedly be disastrous for Gilgit-Baltistan. Under these conditions, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan must reconsider their connection with Pakistan, or the future generations will suffer endlessly.
*Senge Sering is founder of Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies based in USA. The views expressed are his own.
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