GILGIT, May 18: The Northern Areas Bar Council and High Court Bar Association on Saturday at a meeting expressed their concern over the proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (KANA) to the Ministry of Law and Justice.

It was proposed recently that appeals against the decisions of the Northern Areas Chief Court should be submitted before the Peshawar High Court and the Northern Areas law and justice ministry has accordingly consented to it and proposed certain amendments to Article 192(5) of the 1973 Constitution.

Speaking at the meeting, lawyers termed the proposal a mockery of the Northern Areas people and expressed surprise over the ignorance of the Kashmir affairs and Northern Areas and law ministries about the special status of the region (Gilgit-Baltistan).

They said the five districts of the region—Gilgit, Ghizer, Diamer, Gangche and Skardu— were not constitutional part of Pakistan as the areas were not defined in Article 1 of the Constitution, although the region was in the de facto control of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

It was written in Article 192(4) of the Constitution that jurisdiction of the high court may by act of parliament be extended to any area in Pakistan, but not forming it part of the province.

They said that according to articles 1(2&3) and 192(4), Gilgit, Baltistan, Diamer, Ghizer and Gangche— together called the Northern Areas— did not fall within the ambit of Article 1(2&3) of the Constitution.

Neither these areas, they said, were mentioned in the list of territories as defined in Article 1(2) nor had been admitted into the federation of Pakistan by an act of parliament under Article 1(3) of the Constitution.

The lawyers said the Northern Areas were not included in the territorial ambit of Pakistan, and it was baffling that the so-called well-versed officials of the law ministry had proposed to extend the PHC jurisdiction to the region by amending Article 192(5) of the Constitution.