ISLAMABAD: The seven-day shutter-down strike and sits-in across Gilgit-Baltistan over the withdrawal of subsidy on wheat by the federal government finally brought some positive result on Tuesday after the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan formed a five-member committee to look into the matter.

The Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, Chaudhry Birjees Tahir, will head the committee. It will submit its recommendations to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

The committee consists of GB Minister for Works Bashir Ahmad Khan, and three members of the GB Council: Amjad Hussain, Muhammad Ibrahim and Attaullah Shahab.

The committee was formed after a meeting between Chaudhry Birjees Tahir and GB Chief Minister Syed Mahdi Shah.

The chief minister apprised the federal minister of the problems the GB people were facing after a sharp increase in prices of wheat and flour because of the withdrawal of federal government subsidy.

The government recently withdrew subsidy on wheat, triggering protests and shutter down strikes across the Northern Areas as the government decision badly hit mostly poor people of the area.

Mr Birjees Tahir claimed that the GB and the federal governments were on the same page on the issue of subsidy and would work together to resolve the issue.