Gilgit-Baltistan

• The External Affairs Ministry of India issued a “strong protest” over an order by the Pakistan Supreme Court allowing the Pakistan’s Government to hold elections in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

About:

• Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) was formerly known as the Northern Areas.

• It is an integral part of the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh but is currently under Pakistani occupation.

• Gilgit Baltistan has been under the control of Pakistan since April 1949, when the leadership of the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was forced to sign away this territory to Pakistan.

• However, the region does not have any place in the constitutional framework of Pakistan and has been kept under the tight control of the central government. The region functioned as a “provincial autonomous region” since 2009.

• Gilgit-Baltistan shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations as “Pakistan administered Kashmir”.

• Pakistan in recent months had taken a series of steps to ensure full constitutional and legal guarantees to the region which was strategically important for the country especially in view of the passage of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through the region.