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| India-Pakistan |
| GB, AJK part of Pakistan: Dar |
| 2015-06-24 |
| [DAWN] Finance Minister Ishaq Dar emphatically said in the National Assembly on Tuesday that Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK) were part of Pakistain and not disputed territories. The statement came when the minister referred to India's objections to the planned China-Pakistain Economic Corridor on the ground that its route passed though "a disputed territory in Pakistain-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmire state". The Foreign Office has already rejected the Indian objection. "What disputed territory," Mr Dar angrily asked as he cited the expected economic benefits of the corridor as a "game-changer" in the region and said: "Gilgit-Baltistan is part of Pakistain. Azad Kashmire is part of Pakistain." Part of the 3,000km corridor, a mega project to link Pakistain's Gwadar port with Kashgar in China's north-western autonomous region of Xinjiang, will pass through the Gilgit-Baltistan region. China has pledged an investment of $46 billion for the project. Gilgit-Baltistan has always been described by Pak authorities as part of Pakistain, citing circumstances, which some consider equivalent to an accession, following the 1947 ouster by the local people of the territory's governor, a representative of the then Maharaja of Kashmire. The region has a special status with a Pakistain-appointed governor and a chief minister elected by its legislative assembly. Azad Jammu and Kashmire, which is overseen by Pakistain under UN resolutions on Kashmire, has its own elected president and prime minister, both elected by the region's legislative assembly. |
| Posted by:Fred |