Several injured in Pakistan in clashes between police over Gilgit-Baltistan order

Several people have been wounded in Pakistan in clashes between police and protesters during a demonstration against the so-called Gilgit-Baltistan order, media reports said on Sunday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has placed more authority from the local council to deal with the affairs of the disputed region through the Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018 which was passed on May 21.

The order is seen as Islamabad’s efforts towards incorporating the disputed region as its fifth province.

Politicians, cutting across party lines, held protest rallies across Gilgit-Baltistan demanding constitutional rights for the region.

The Gilgit-Baltistan government has issued the Gilgit-Baltistan Order-2018, which replaced the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order of 2009.

However, the new order has seen failure to impress local politicians who announced region-wide protests.

“We will continue our sit-in outside the assembly till this package is revoked and we are given constitutional rights,” said Awami Action Committee (AAC) Chairman Sultan Raees.
Civil rights groups in Pakistan have also criticised the order.

In New Delhi, Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner Syed Haider Shah was summoned over Islamabad’s so-called Gilgit-Baltistan order.

He was told by India that any action to change the status of any part of the territory under his country’s forcible occupation has no legal basis.

Pakistan has divided occupied Kashmir into two administrative parts – Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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Gilgit-Baltistan was treated as a separate geographical entity by Pakistan until now.
Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh are the four provinces of Pakistan.

A Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Abbasi on Tuesday, was informed that Gilgit-Baltistan Council will be retained as an advisory body towards the functions of the Federal Government.

China’s controversial $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through the disputed region.