GILGIT: The Pakistan Peoples Party has demanded of the federal government to dissolve the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly to hold fresh elections in the region coinciding with polls in Pakistan.

Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, the party’s GB president Amjad Hussain Advocate pointed out that the party ruling in the centre always influenced the polls in GB, thus the need for holding the elections in the region simultaneously with Pakistan to ensure free and fair elections.

It is to mention here that GBLA term ends in June 2020.

The PPP president favoured abolishment of the GB Council, but said it was not yet clear whether the powers exercised by the council would also be transferred to GBLA.

Mr Hussain lamented that the GB people had been demanding representation in the parliament, but to no avail. He claimed that the decision to abolish the AJK and GB councils had been taken on the demand of AJK Prime Minister Farooq Haider, but regretted that the recommendations of the federally constituted Sartaj Aziz committee that GB people should be given representation in the parliament had not been implemented.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018