Memorandum submitted to UN office at Srinagar and High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi
Submitted by: Jammu and Kashmir Youth Development Forum
Against the “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order-2009”
Pakistan has finally come out with its plan to annex areas of Jammu and Kashmir - Gilgit and Baltistan. The recent so called “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order-2009” of Government of Pakistan is a move to illegally grab the areas.Pakistan always had eyes on the State of Jammu and Kashmir; and made many unsuccessful attempts to grab whole of Jammu and Kashmir. Areas of Gilgit, Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir are under direct and indirect control of Pakistan since 1947. Gilgit and Baltistan was directly ruled and was known as Northern Areas of Pakistan – a term always opposed and denounced by the people of the area.People of Gilgit and Baltistan have been denied all basic rights and are ruled with iron fist by the Islamabad. The situation in Gilgit and Baltistan is so bad that some conscientious Pakistani call it a colony of Pakistan. Pakistani government knows that legally these areas are not part of Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan was not constitutional part of Pakistan and people of region had been deprived of all fundamental human rights.Pakistan has made enormous economic and political gains from these areas since 1947. With help of China they have started many mega projects in the area, which benefit both.Pakistan’s has been propagating in the last 20-years that India was denying basic rights to Kashmiris which is a blatant lie. India is not perpetrating even one-hundredth part of the repression that people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been facing for the past 60 years. The Indian Government has given people all their fundamental human rights.Pakistan had been regarded as the aggressor in the region by earlier UN resolutions and hence should vacate the occupied territory.Gilgit-Baltistan is economically rich in minerals, forests, water, and tourism and historically it was part and parcel of Jammu & Kashmir and two famous rulers of the state were belonging to the Gilgit-Baltistan region.Hence, the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Development Forum – a platform of young and vibrant Kashmiri youth – demands intervention of United Nations to ask Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Gilgit-Baltistan, which it has illegally occupied.