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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan mulls elevating status of Gilgit-Baltistan on Chinese insistence |
| 2016-01-08 |
| [DAWN] Pakistain is mulling to elevate the constitutional status of northern Gilgit-Baltistan region in a bid to provide legal cover to the multi-billion-dollar Chinese investment plan, officials said on Thursday. The move could signal a historic shift in the country's position on the future of the wider Kashmire region, observers have said. The proposal would see the mountainous region mentioned by name for the first time in the country's Constitution, bringing it one step closer to being fully absorbed as an additional province. Islamabad has historically insisted the parts of Kashmire it controls are semi-autonomous and has not formally integrated them into the country, in line with its position that a referendum should be carried out across the whole of the region. Sajjad-ul-Haq, front man for the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Hafiz Hafeez ur Rehman, told AFP: "A high level committee formed by the prime minister is working on the issue, you will hear good news soon." Rehman, who arrived in Islamabad on Thursday, was working on the finishing touches to the agreement, a bigwig said, adding the document could be unveiled "in a few days". In addition to being named in the Constitution, Gilgit-Baltistan would also send two politicians to sit in the federal parliament -- though they would be given observer status only. A third top government official from Gilgit-Baltistan said the move was in response to concerns raised by Beijing about the China Pakistain Economic Corridor, the $46 billion infrastructure plan set to link China's western city of Kashgar to the Pak port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. "China cannot afford to invest billions of dollars on a road that passes through a disputed territory claimed both by India and Pakistain," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said. |
| Posted by:Fred |