What a Gilgit Baltistan Province means for Kashmir and Pakistan
In November of 2020 Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan declared his intentions for granting the territories of Gilgit Baltistan ‘Provisional Provincial Status.’ This would ultimately give way for full provincial status for the territory. Effectively, this would transform Gilgit Baltistan into the fifth province of the Pakistan.
credit: Karte: NordNordWest, Lizenz
The potential ramifications for this decision are quite enormous as, apart from altering the domestic political arrangement of the nation, granting Gilgit Baltistan status as a province also has vast ramifications for the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India.
Gilgit Baltistan, although not ethnically or culturally contiguous with the wider Kashmir region is nevertheless considered a part of it. The Republic of India however, maintains that Gilgit Baltistan is a part of Indian Kashmir and is illegally occupied by Pakistan. Granting the territory provincial status will undoubtedly cause tensions between the two nations to flare up considerably.
Aside from upsetting its neighbor, Pakistan has also garnered the ire of Kashmiri nationalists and separatists whose desires for a Kashmiri ethno-state clearly clash with Pakistan’s attempt at integration.
It’s interesting to note that Pakistan’s new decision to create a Gilgit Baltistan province is not too dissimilar to India’s earlier attempt to end Kashmir’s special status. This indicates a wider trend of territorial consolidation between the two countries. A trend where each seems to want to strengthen their hold on their respective portions of the Kashmir valley.
Perhaps, it could even be said that the creation of a Gilgit Baltistan province could possibly lead to the end of the Kashmir conflict in its entirety.
Both states seem to favor consolidation of the territory that they already occupy, and both are deeply opposed to any calls for an independent Kashmiri state.
For Kashmiri nationalists and separatists, this attempt to ‘divide their homeland’ is nothing short of a betrayal from Islamabad and, a signal that maybe Pakistan is no longer committed to Kashmiri freedom or unity.
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