RECENTLY President Asif Zardari, with a view to addressing the long-standing demands of the people of the Northern Areas, signed the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, 2009.

Under this order, besides other key institutions, Gilgit-Baltistan will have a directly elected legislative assembly which will be responsible for a number of transferred subjects. There shall also be an elected chief minister and governor.

However, even with these reforms, Gilgit-Baltistan will not feature in the Pakistani constitution as an integral part of the country and the region will not form Pakistan's fifth province or have a voice in the federation. The people who in November 1947 overthrew Dogra rule and opted for Pakistan will, even after nearly 62 years, not be given their rightful recognition as fully fledged citizens of Pakistan. This is disgraceful.

The main reason given for this less-than-equal treatment is the Kashmir dispute. It is true that legally Gilgit formed a part of the Dogra-ruled state of Jammu and Kashmir. But sticking to a long-defunct legal reality does injustice to the rights and aspirations of the people of the region. It also ignores the history of the region, where almost from the very beginning the Gilgit region had little contact with the state of Kashmir.

The area of Gilgit did not constitute the original state of Jammu and Kashmir which Maharaja Gulab Singh purchased from the British. Both Gulab Singh and his successor, Ranbir Singh, tried to assert their control over this region, but it was only in about 1870 that they were able to hold Gilgit town. However, in 1877 the British, realising the tenuous hold of Kashmir over the region, deputed Col John Biddulph as their agent. The formal creation of Gilgit Agency followed in 1889, which included the parts ruled by Kashmir as well as the states of Hunza and Nagar and the semi-autonomous tribal 'governorships' adjacent to Gilgit.

In Gilgit a proper mechanism of dual control was established whereby formal Kashmiri control was supervised by the British political agent.

Concerns about Czarist Russian and later Soviet expansion led the British to further lease the Gilgit Wazarat (which was just a portion of what later became the Northern Areas) from Kashmir in 1935 for 60 years. Hence the dual administration which had existed in a part of the territory came to an end and the whole region was now administered by the Government of India.

As the date of the transfer of power and partition of India neared, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten terminated the lease of Gilgit and handed over the wazarat to the Kashmir durbar on Aug 1, 1947. This move was not welcomed by the people of Gilgit or the Gilgit Scouts, who were led by a Scottish soldier, Major William Brown.

The lacklustre handing over ceremony on July 31, 1947 and the later sham oath-taking ceremonies by the Gilgit Scouts were clear examples that the people of the region were not happy to see the return of Kashmiri rule after decades of British administration. Even the new Kashmiri governor Ghansara Singh wrote to the Kashmir prime minister that “In case the state accedes to the Indian Union, the Gilgit province will go to Pakistan.”

Charged anticipation brewed in Gilgit as the maharaja of Kashmir mulled over the accession issue. Meanwhile, Major Brown, together with his assistant political agent, Captain Mathieson in Chilas, created a secret plan code-named Datta-khel.

According to the plan, on D-day, which was supposed to be determined by Brown, Mathieson's duty would be to keep Chilas under control and take care of the Kashmir State Forces stationed at Bunji, with or without the help of the Muslim contingent, which they were hoping would rise in rebellion.

Brown, on the other hand, would put Ghansara Singh under arrest, cut all lines of communication with Srinagar and immediately wire Pakistan for assistance. Almost at the same time, some local officers of the Scouts and the State Forces were also contemplating a revolt in case Kashmir acceded to India.D-day was the night between Oct 31 and Nov 1, 1947 when Major Brown carried out Datta-khel and very quickly secured Gilgit while Captain Mathieson controlled Chilas.

Various accounts exist as to who was actually responsible for the midnight revolution, but several pieces of evidence and corroborating evidence from the Kashmir-appointed Ghansara Singh show clearly that it was Major Brown who was in ultimate control till the Pakistani government deputed a political agent in Gilgit on Nov 16, 1947.

Thus, without the involvement of anyone from Pakistan, the Pakistani flag was flown in Gilgit town on Nov 2, 1947. The credit for this bloodless revolution goes to Major Brown and Captain Mathieson and also to the people of the region who were wholeheartedly behind the move to secede from Kashmir and join Pakistan.

Even as late as June 1949 The Times noted “This much is certain ... the inhabitants of this completely Muslim region are wholeheartedly with Pakistan. Ever since the bloodless revolution of October 1947... the populace has been determined to throw in its lot with Islam as represented by Pakistan.”

So the question remains why can the people of this region not enjoy full Pakistani citizenship rights even after nearly 62 years of having decided to join the country? It is a real shame that the Pakistani government has still not recognised the secession of this region from Kashmir and accepted its separate accession to Pakistan.

Pakistan was created so that the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent could live in an environment where they were not treated as second-class citizens. This treatment is exactly what Pakistan is inflicting on the people of Gilgit. The new changes will give the people of Gilgit-Baltistan some rights, but it is essential that Pakistan give them full citizenship rights immediately so that alienation and deprivation in the region can be fully addressed.

The writer is a historian at Keble College, University of Oxford.

yaqoob.bangash@keble.ox.ac.uk