GILGIT: The last session of the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) legislative assembly began here on Monday with Speaker Wazir Baig in the chair.

The term of the assembly ends on Wednesday.

The assembly adopted a resolution criticising remarks made by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rasheed and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif that GB not a constitutional part of Pakistan.

The resolution was tabled by PPP member Ayub Shah and Abdul Hameed Khan.

The ministers made the remarks while commenting on a verdict of the GB anti-terrorism court which had sentenced the owner of Jang-Geo group, Mir Shakeelur Rehman, host of a Geo TV’s morning show Shaista Lodhi, actress Veena Malik and her husband Malik Asad to 26-year imprisonment each for hurting religious sentiments of people in the show.

During the debate on the resolution, members criticised the ministers and said their remarks negated the sacrifices rendered by the people of GB for the independence of the region from the Dogra rule in 1947 and its annexation with Pakistan.

The resolution said the people of GB considered themselves to be patriotic citizens of Pakistan and the remarks made by the ministers raised questions about the eligibility of the PML-N government at the centre.

It called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stop his ministers from making such comments on the verdict of a court.

President of PML-Q in GB Mirza Hussain said that strategically and economically GB was an important part of Pakistan.

If the GB was not a constitutional part of the country, why should Pakistan make claim on natural resources of the region as the country’s assets, he asked.

Similarly, he said, if the GB was not part of Pakistan why did it established links with China through the region, and why was Pakistan China Economic Corridor being built through the GB.

Deputy Speaker Jamil Ahmed and Rahmat Khaliq of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl said these federal ministers should be punished under Article 6 of the Constitution for not accepting GB as part of Pakistan.

Chief Minister Syed Mahdi Shah said the federal ministers had tried to save the media group by putting national integrity at stake.

“We should respect verdicts of courts in all parts of the country. If GB courts are illegal why has the prime minister notified the judges of GB courts,” he added.

Opposition members in the assembly, Sultan Ali and Fida Mohammad Nashad of PML-N opposed the resolution.

Mr Nashad said according to “GB Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009” GB had been declared a “de facto part of Pakistan, but GB still is not Constitutional part of Pakistan”.

Opposition Leader Janbaz Khan described the statements of the federal ministers as correct because they had raised a legal point.

Nawaz Khan Naji of Balwaristan National Front opposed the resolution.

Published in Dawn December 9th , 2014