Pakistan PM vows to grant provisional status to Gilgit-Baltistan

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan says his government will grant provisional status to a portion of the disputed territory of Kashmir, drawing condemnation from India and sparking a fresh war of words between the two countries.

The strategically important Gilgit-Baltistan region bordering Afghanistan and China is home to an estimated population of two million people.

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence in 1947 over the mountainous territory of Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of.

On Sunday, Khan addressed a political rally in the city of Gilgit, capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region that forms part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, ahead of planned elections there later this month.

“We have made a decision to grant provisional provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan, which has long been the demand here,” said Khan.

The proposal is unlikely to face opposition within Pakistan, where opposition political parties met secretly with the country’s army and intelligence chiefs in September to discuss the issue, lending their backing to the upgrade of Gilgit-Baltistan’s status, several opposition leaders told Al Jazeera at the time.

In India, however, Khan’s pronouncement was met with a sharp rebuke from the foreign ministry, which said it “firmly rejects” the move.

“I reiterate that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the area of so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’, are an integral part of India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947,” said Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Shri Anurag Srivastava.

Gilgit-Baltistan is a vital part of the $60bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with the project’s major overland crossing at Kashgar, in the territory’s north.

The upgrade to provisional provincial status would see a more empowered local provincial assembly formed, with broad-ranging administrative and governance powers.

(Aljazeera)