GB parties criticise AJK leaders’ remarks
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GILGIT: The government and opposition parties of Gilgit-Baltistan have criticised the president and prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for opposing the grant of provincial status to GB.
They said the statements issued by the AJK leaders recently had hurt the sentiments of GB people who had been deprived of basic rights under the present system.
Addressing a press conference at the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly secretariat here on Saturday after the first meeting of the new cabinet, GB Information Minister Ibrahim Sanai said the region had historically been part of Pakistan.
Also read: AJK opposes giving provincial status to GB
He claimed that AJK had acquired independence with the support of GB people but instead of being grateful to them, the AJK leaders were hatching conspiracies against them.
Mr Sanai said GB had no linguistic or racial connection with AJK and it was spread over an area larger than AJK’s.
“GB people cannot understand why the AJK leaders are unhappy over their constitutional rights,” he said.
The minister said India always opposed provision of fundamental rights to GB people and the same was the stance of the AJK leaders.
He urged the AJK leadership to avoid issuing such statements.
The leader of the PPP’s GB chapter, Amjad Hussain, said that AJK Supreme Court had decided in 1949 that administrative affairs of GB should be run by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “Under the Karachi agreement of 1949, the AJK leadership handed over GB to government of Pakistan but now the current leadership of AJK is violating the accord,” he said at the press conference.
“After independence from the Dogra Raj, GB people had opted for the region’s merger with Pakistan as an independent entity,” he said.
The PPP leader said that residents of GB had been deprived of fundamental rights while AJK people enjoyed the rights.
A local leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Amina Ansari, condemned the statements of the AJK leaders and asked them to apologise to the GB people.
Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015
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