India objects to Pakistan staging Gilgit-Baltistan polls!
-Dr. Abdul Ruff
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Like India, Pakistan is also trying hold polls in Gilgit-Baltistan, a disputed region of Jammu Kashmir in order to claim permanent legitimacy over the region. India calls the region an integral part of India and Pakistan illegally occupies.
Pakistan is conducting polls on June 8 in Gilgit-Baltistan under the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Government Order but the act has angered its nuclear rival India because both jointly occupy Jammu Kashmir sandwiched between them in order to create a buffer zone where they could wage occasional wars to terrorize the Kashmiris. . ..
India has flagged its objections to elections being held in Gilgit-Baltistan, which forms a part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and termed the move as an attempt to camouflage the ‘forcible and illegal’ occupation of the region.
India says the entire state of Jammu Kashmir, which includes the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan, is an integral part of India. The election in Gilgit-Baltistan next week, under the so called Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Government Order, is an attempt by Pakistan to camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation of the regions.
New Delhi says India is concerned by the continued efforts by Pakistan to deny the people of the region their political rights and the efforts being made to absorb these territories. The fact that a federal minister of Pakistan is also a governor of Gilgit-Baltistan speaks for itself. Indian ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup told media here that India is taking up w the matter with UN. Unfortunately, in recent times, the people of the region have also become victims of sectarian conflict, terrorism and extreme economic hardship due to Pakistan’s occupationary policies,” he added.
Pakistan is going ahead with the legislative elections in Gilgit-Baltistan scheduled poll announced earlier will be held on June 8. Media reported that a jirga in the region has barred women from taking part casting their vote in one of the constituencies in the region, thereby depriving over 12,000 women of their right. However the reason for denying women in the constituency is not known as yet.
India has never before objected to Pakistan conducting polls in its occupied regions of Kashmir, including Gilgit-Baltistan and the today’s objection is to drive Islamabad the point that both need compromises like mutual cross border firings and Pakistan should now stop demanding more lands of Kashmir and should be satisfied with whatever regions it has managed to get from wars with India. After all, both are illegally occupying Jammu Kashmir and both do not want to surrender the alien Kashmir lands to the legitimate owners so that justice prevails in South Asia. .
India and Pakistan obtained nukes thanks to their joint occupation of Jammu Kashmir.
