Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 10: Kashmiri separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani are fighting for the Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, saying Kashmir is Muslim majority and it is a natural part of Muslim Pakistan. It seems he, like other Kashmiri separatists, has been bribed by Pakistan. How else would one describe his support for Pakistan where the plight of his co-religionists in Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK is highly miserable? The people of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK have no democratic and political rights. They are being terrorized by the Pakistani army and its terror assets like Lashkar-e-Toiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hizbul Mujahideen and so on. Pakistan has changed, and continue to change, their demography to neutralize the influence of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK, which are integral part of India. The truth, in short, is that the people of these areas are no more than third grade subjects of Pakistan.
Geelani and other Kashmiri separatists, who also get overt and covert support from the so-called mainstream Kashmiri parties, including the NC, the CPI-M, the CPI and certain elements in the Congress like Saif-ud-Din Soz, know that the plight of his co-religionists in Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK is miserable, but still they bat for Pakistan. Which clearly means that they have been either bribed by the dreaded ISI or they are working for the slavery of Kashmiri Muslims. There cannot be another meaning.
What is the plight of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan? What is their political status within Pakistan? It would be only desirable to quote verbatim what an impartial Indian commentator said on the eve of the sham elections. Elections took place on June 8. The commentator, inter-alia, said: "Until 2009, the region was simply called Northern Areas. G-B (Gilgit-Baltistan), the name, came with the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, 2009, announced in September that year, which also replaced the Northern Areas Legislative Council with the Legislative Assembly. The NALC was an elected body, but had no more than an advisory role to the representative of the federalgovernment, the Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, who ruled from Islamabad. The Legislative Assembly is only a slight improvement. It has 24 directly elected members and nine nominated ones - six of whom are women, and three are technocrats. In theory, it can pass a budget and make laws on 61 subjects, but the list excludes certain key areas such as natural resources, including water and minerals. A Chief Minister elected by the largest political party or grouping will form the government, but real power is still wielded by the federally-appointed Governor, through a 12-member Legislative Council, half of whose members will be nominated by him. Given the region's importance, the Pakistan Army plays an outsize role behind the scenes.
"The 2009 reforms package satisfied no one: G-Bs were unhappy with the illusory autonomy it offered, with constitutional guarantees still absent; India said the move was part of a plan to make G-B a province of Pakistan in all but name; Kashmiris saw in it an insidious move by the Pakistan People's Party government of that time to dilute their cause by giving a region internationally considered a part of the Kashmir issue a province-like status within Pakistan," the commentator further said.
Compare the political status of the people of this side of Kashmir with the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK and you will see the difference. The people of this side of Kashmir have been at the helm of affairs since 1947 and New Delhi has all along been very generous towards it. Kashmir, unlike Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK, exercises absolute legislative and executive powers under the atrocious and divisive Article 370. No central law can be extended to Jammu & Kashmir Legislature. All the political parties in New Delhi - both in power and out of powers - including the BJP and the Congress, are always at the back and call of Kashmiri leadership and always ready to sacrifice Jammu and Ladakh to keep Kashmir in a good humour. The fact is that Kashmir is India's most powerful and prosperous region.
But Geelani and his ilk will not appreciate all this because they are Pakistani agents and mercenaries. It is for the general population in Kashmir to compare their plight and status with their co-religionists in Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK and decide what they want. Do they want slavery under Pakistan or do they want to live under the Indian democratic system? |
