By Samuel Baid
A fish jumps out of a frying pan for freedom, but, alas, it falls into the fire. This is the tragic story of the people of Gilgit – Baltistan. The British, when they held Gilgit on lease from Maharaja Hari Singh of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, treated the locals as slaves, who had no rights or voice.
Before independence in 1947, the British returned Gilgit to Maharaja Hari Singh. Subsequent assessment in Pakistan presume that the Maharaja wanted to make Gilgit a province of Jammu and Kashmir. But the Gilgit scouts revolted against the Maharaja and temporarily handed over its administration to Pakistan. This decision of the Gilgit scouts proved hell fire for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan took over the administration and began considering itself as the successor of the British. It retained all the inhuman laws with which the British tamed the locals. Pakistan was also not willing to treat them as full-fledged human beings.
Years of suppression by the British, when they had Gilgit on lease, had conditioned the locals to timidly bear their deprivations and humiliation. They might have had some hopes when fellow- Muslim Pakistan took over the administration of Gilgit. But they were rudely disillusioned when they found their fellow-Muslims were worse than the non-Muslim whites.
Pakistan just didn’t bother that these people were Muslims. Perhaps the fact that these Muslims were mostly Shias made Pakistan’s Sunni fanatics hostile to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. It was something they did not suffer even during the British tyrannical rule.
There had been no reports that the British starved the locals to keep them tamed. Nor were these reports that the locals were deprived of their land. The British, known for their divide-and-rule policy, did not apply this policy by dividing Shias and Sunnis in Gilgit. They had equal contempt and suspicion of all locals in the territory.
When the people came under the administrative control of Pakistan they got to know how torture, humiliation, and frustration and deprivation go together. They had suppressed aspirations to have some identity and civil rights. They could not possibly struggle when the British controlled them. They might be having some hope when the British returned the lease to Maharaja Hari Singh. But the Gilgit scouts pushed the people to another phase of slavery by revolting against the Maharaja and offering Gilgit to Pakistan on a platter.
Hoping Pakistan would understand their aspirations for civil rights and a constitutional identity, they started a movement. But how wrong they were. How could Pakistan understand them if after 75 years of independence, it has itself not understood democracy and civil rights.
In 1988, military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq decided to put an end to the demands of the people of Gilgit- Baltistan by a three-pronged action:
- Deployment of the Army which alleged Iranian hand in the Gilgit- Baltistan stir;
- Invasion of Gilgit-Baltistan by armed Pakistanis who plundered locals farms and shops and snatched their businesses and;
- Divide Shias and Sunnis: From now on Shia-Sunni riots became frequent. Their demands of civil rights disappeared.
A greater blow to their aspirations was given by then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1994, when she announced new reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan allowing party-based elections. As a result, all Pakistani political parties and Islamic groups began opening their branches to fight the coming elections.
Now, a new chapter of misery started. After 1994, Pakistan based political parties took control of Gilgit Baltistan. These parties are ignorant of the problems of this region and its people, but they assert themselves to uphold the interest of Pakistan. Worse, at the time of elections, the local voters prefer these Pakistan-based parties’ candidates to their own local candidates who know the local problems and their solution very well.
The current crisis in Gilgit-Baltistan is due to the locals’ preference for Pakistan-based candidates who neither are aware of the local problems, nor they want to know them. Their indifference to the problems of GB is like the British attitude towards them.
Today, the people have been deprived of all fundamental, civic and political rights. If they agitate, their leaders are hauled up illegally under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Law. The so-called assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan does not discuss people’s problems. The ruling elite allocates funds for luxury and increase their salaries and allowances but for public work, they say, there is no budget. The government perpetually fails to provide necessities like clean drinking water, electricity, health facilities, roads, wheat, pulses and education facilities.
Revolt is brewing up against Pakistan in Gilgit Baltistan. The locals are questioning Pakistan’s right to divide and alter Gilgit-Baltistan’s geographical make-up. Perhaps it is a reference to dividing occupied Kashmir into “Azad” Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and giving away a large chunk of Hunza (Gilgit-Baltistan) territory to China in March 1963. The local people are intrigued why Pakistan is keeping the boundaries of Gilgit Baltistan unknown. They want United Nations Military Observer Group (UNMOG) to intervene.
(The writer can be reached at samuelbaid.work@gmail.com)
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.
