Another year of betrayal, subjugation

By Dj Mathal

At last, the year 2009 also passed leaving behind poverty, backwardness, bomb blasts, suicide attacks, divisions, law and order problems and many more socio-economic issues. The beginning of the 21^st century had not been reassuring either. The world became fragmented in wars; many countries faced aggression at the hands of the powerful in search of controlling resources of nations. Our region is one of the unfortunate pieces of land in the world where Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Afghanistan as well as many Central Asian states are faced with the menace of self-made terrorism.

Whereas poverty, ignorance and backwardness further pressed the people of Pakistan hard in the year 2009, its far-reaching effects were also badly felt by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. The year 2009 left behind untold miseries and uncertainty in the four provinces of Pakistan while the ruler sitting in Islamabad announced a so called package and the posts of a governor and a puppet chief minister to further prolong the slavery of the two million people of Gilgit-Baltistan. However, due to lack of any check on the rulers at the national and international levels, the people of the region are beside themselves with anger. As such, 2009 turned out to be yet another year of subjugation for the region which entered another year with no hope the residents would be getting their due rights. Like the years before, 2009 also left behind the legacy of uncertainty and fears. The seeds of hatred in the form of sectarianism sowed by occupiers are still threatening the people; the corruption of the bureaucracy imposed on the region is still rampant; corruption and commission mafia is still active; violations of human rights are still widespread; the policy of divide and rule on the basis of ethnic, sectarian, regional and clan basis is still working. And the process is continuing to implement the decrees of the Islamabad-based rulers to enslave the masses of the region. The very old tactic is being used by the rulers to eliminate the identity and culture of the region. Still about 99 per cent of the natural resources of the region are controlled by the outsiders and efforts are underway to even lease out the mountains of the area to outsiders. In order to ensure water to make Pakistan greener, dams like Basha-Diamer are being built on the soil of Gilgit-Baltistan with complete disregard to the sensitivities of the region and survival of its people. The process of dwarfing the political activity in the region by declaring it as mini-Larkana and Raiwind is getting momentum while those peaceful nationalists who have been raising voice for ensuring basic rights for the people are being harassed and silenced.  Besides, sufferings of the people are being concealed from the outside world through well-concocted tabs on the media. Newspapers are being denied advertisements to kill them economically while journalists are threatened and intimidated in order to silence them.

The region also faces shortage of educational institutions and the only centre of higher learning - the Karakoram International University - is faced with a crisis-like situation. There is no technical, medical or engineering college affiliated with this so called university. Through a well-hatched policy, the youth of the region are also being kept ignorant of their history and culture. Pakistan’s historical sites, heroes and tourist resorts are included in the syllabus of Gilgit-Baltistan while the local cultural heritage gets no place in it.

The State Subject Rule is still being violated and non-locals are being brought in and settled in the region against the rule. This not only is threatening the demographic composition of the region but is also giving a chance to people from other provinces of Pakistan to plunder the resources of the region.  Thus the locals are not only facing economic exploitations but are also being deprived of the right to run businesses in their own land. As Gilgit-Baltistan is a disputed region, tax cannot be imposed on the people; however, without giving representation to the people, they are being taxed by both public and private sectors including multinational companies.

These are the issues which the people of the region have been facing for the last over 63 years. The long era of slavery has made the people so paralyzed that before launching a struggle for their national identity, they would have to think over a hundred times. Rulers and their secret agencies have been trying their best to keep the innocent and simple people ignorant of their rights through a propaganda war.  

However, the year 2010 has started with many hopes and expectations too. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan expect that the year would be a harbinger of national emancipation but this would be possible only if the residents gave an impetus to their struggle for achievement of all their rights so far denied to them. The people should expect to keep their struggle confined to ensuring full emancipation and tell the civilized nations of the world that they do not accept slavery.

We stress that the government of Pakistan should abandon its 63-year-long tactics of subjugating the region by violating human rights and exploitation and leave the area people to decide their future in accordance with their wishes and aspirations. Also Islamabad should withdraw its paramilitary and civilian bureaucracy from the region in accordance with the UN resolutions. Instead of the so called package, free and fair elections should be held in the region under the supervision of international observers. Instead of deploying the brave NLI personnel in other parts of Pakistan and get them killed, they should be sent back to their area. In order to end unemployment and backwardness in the region, the local people should be given the right to rule over the region. 

If the government continued its policy of perpetuating its rule in the region, its effects would not only be disastrous for Pakistan but would also engulf the whole South Asia. But we hope that common sense would prevail and the new year would bring prosperity and peace to the region.