World should take notice of GB issue 

By Dj Mathal

One of the PPP Jialas in the region, Mr Mehdi Shah has started working as the first chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan as a result of the rigged elections to the powerless Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly. The 32-member house, a production of the rigged elections of November 12, 2009, consisting of Jialas of the PPP and other political and religious parties has unanimously elected Mehdi Shah as the leader of the house. In other words, the design of the occupiers to introduce the so called good governance order 2009 has succeeded in achieving one of its major target. They will now start propagating to the whole world that Gilgit-Baltistan has been given complete internal autonomy. This is not the new tactic of the occupiers as for the last over 63 years they have been hoodwinking the international community by using different tactics and through their shenanigans. During this period, sometimes they used religion and pitched brother against brother on sectarian lines and sometimes used different packages to hoodwink the simple people in order to perpetuate their imperialist designs in the region. When the lava started to come to the surface with the struggle of the local people for their rights and the world came to know about the actual position, Islamabad's face got exposed and it came up with the so called good governance order to cheat the world once again. Before this, military dictator Pervez Musharraf had also introduced another package but the two million people of the region had quickly rejected it. Now the PPP government has brought its own package with minor differences and it seems that the rulers and the bureaucracy have joined hands to push Gilgit-Baltistan into yet another era of slavery under the garb of the new package. Gilgit-Baltistan was freed from the Dogra rule by the residents of the region in 1947 but soon the government of Pakistan occupied the region taking undue advantage of the simplicity of the masses of the region. How the poor people of the region have suffered at the hands of both its own local leaders and outsiders have become part of history. However, the history of live nations is always depleted with ups and downs. As the new years dawns on us, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan should resolve to struggle against the 63 years injustices instead of relying on the powerless legislative assembly to deliver any good for them. To promote our own identity, we should also tell the world that Gilgit-Baltistan is one of the most neglected and backward regions of the world. Due to lack of education, healthcare facilities and other infrastructure, the people of the region are still living in the Stone Age. There is even no concept of basic human rights in the region and if any that is available to the bureaucrats who have been imposed on the local people from outside. There is no quality education and the menace of child labour is rising due to lack of opportunities and poverty. Those who have resources send their children out of the region to acquire education but due to rampant poverty majority of the people are unable to do so. The educational institutions in the region have become the producers of unemployed youth.The proper use of natural resources, laying of a network of good roads, proper attention on agriculture and provision of better healthcare facilities to the masses are some of the necessary measures for the growth of a healthy nation. Gilgit-Baltistan has been bestowed with abundance of natural resources and if the locals are made the real owners and beneficiaries of these resources, the region will become one of the prosperous and developed regions of the world. There are numerous rivers flowing in the region. Out of the seven large glaciers, seven are located in this region, which is also called the gateway to Asia including three atomic powers. The area is also called a paradise on earth by tourists. There are as many as 101 peaks over 7,000 metres above sea level, four national parks, three wildlife sanctuaries, five ecological zones in the region which has also the potential to generate 50,000 MW electricity. However, unfortunately, the local people have no right and power to utilize all of these resources for their own good. For the last many years, the local residents have been kept in perpetual poverty and ignorance through usurpation of their rights on the resources of the region. Today, outsiders have a monopoly on the business in the region, and more importantly there is no one to listen to the woes of the residents.Today, the civilized world should realize its obligation and put pressure on the government of Pakistan to stop the injustices it has meted out to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, the last colony of the world in the 21st century, and ensure their due rights. The international community should also help all those nationalist parties who are struggling for achieving basic rights of the residents of the region. The masses of Gilgit-Baltistan and those who love freedom should not only play their role in attaining their rights but should also devise new strategy to run the movement in a forceful manner. This is essential because it is impossible to continue the freedom movement from a single front. To defeat the usurpers and achieve one's rights, the movement should have to be strengthened with the support at the grassroots level.