Protests escalate in Gilgit Baltistan: Wheat, taxes and autonomy demands fuel strongest anti-Pakistan movement yet

Tara Kartha

All in all, the ongoing protests in Gilgit Baltistan are a culmination of distress building up over the years

It has been 30 days in freezing temperatures, about minus 2 to be precise. Yet the crowds in Gilgit are only getting larger, as people come out in what has been the strongest protests seen in recent times against Pakistani occupation. Because that is what it is. Gilgit Baltistan is not part of Pakistan, neither is it independent or even autonomous. Together with the rest of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, it’s the last colony on earth, and the people are finally tired of it all.Advertisement

Wheat is at stake

Protests have been sporadically for months, mainly on the issue of a hike in wheat prices, as Pakistan began to slowly remove a subsidy granted to a region that it milks for its plentiful natural resources. And it was a telling testimony to the indifference of the State that it chose to further hike prices right in amidst protests in December, with the ‘Chief Minister’ Haji Gulbar Khan explaining that he had negotiated a deal to prevent an even higher hike. Khan is an ‘estranged’ member of the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf) and took over the house last July, displacing the PTI loyalist Khurshid Khan who was removed over an alleged ‘fake degree’.  None of this is helping matters. Pakistan had a bumper wheat crop last year, and though it has indeed become the fifth largest importer of Russian wheat since the war, rising eightfold to 1.5 million MT in March last year and shipped in via Gwadar, the fact remains that Gilgit Baltistan produces little wheat of its own, which means it is entirely dependant on Islamabad for its sustenance.You May LikeUAE esports team NASR use this VPN & cybersecurityKaspersky  by Taboola Sponsored Links 

No taxation without representation

This sudden hike has added salt to existing wounds. The Awami Action Committee (AAC), leading the protests that have spread across the region, into Skardu and smaller towns, has a list of demands that underscores the exploitation that the people face. That includes complete opposition to the new Gilgit Baltistan Finance Act 2023 which proposes a raft of new taxes on everything to do with tourism, (which is the only source of revenue for the area) but also pushed in ‘austerity measures’ on all government employees. Don’t assume that the locals are in the lucky position of paying no taxes at all. They pay millions in indirect taxes to Islamabad, even while it is not part of Pakistan at all in terms of the constitution. Remember that the United States was born when it fought against Britain’s levying taxes in the now well-known demand of ‘no taxation without representation’. That’s what the AAC is asking for together with a demand for a slice of the national kitty through the National Finance Commission. In simple words, they want to be treated like any other state at least on financial terms. But that’s against Pakistan government policy since it vitiates their ‘principled stance’ on the whole of Kashmir as disputed. So Gilgit Baltistan continues to be neither here nor there, while Islamabad takes its pound of flesh anyway.Advertisement

Give us our daily electricity

There are other demands. That includes replacing the Gilgit Baltistan assembly with a Constituent Assembly (in short replacing a rubber stamp body with a statutory body with powers); provide with free electricity from its own Diamer Bhasha dam, and giving it direct royalty as a source of revenue instead of water use rights and net hydel profits. Pakistani officials point out that of Pakistan’s total of 64,000 megawatts of hydropower reserves, 95 per cent lie in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. That means dependency on areas that don’t belong to Pakistan at all. The centre however has plans for another 300 projects in an area that ironically sees 18 hours of load shedding in the height of winter. Other demands include cancelling all mining leases given to non-locals. In 2019, protests were seen in Ghanche after some 300 leases were given to Chinese companies for mining in pasture lands. In 2022, there were reports of mining again being leased out in Hunza to Chinese companies. Gilgit Baltistan has rich veins of gemstones which are famous, as well as gold and strategic minerals.Advertisement

Land that is being grabbed

There’s another interesting demand with implications for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). That is the State accepts ownership of locals over all uncultivated and barren land. The encroachment by Pakistan into these lands has been steady and most recently has come to public gaze after Pakistan’s Board of Investments (BoI) in 2019 approved the fast-track development of nine Special Economic Zones, including Moqpondass, about 40 km from the city of Gilgit. Satellite imagery shows an area of some 750 acres under construction, though the allotted area according to official sources is only 250 acres. Protests have been building over uneven compensation for this arbitrary takeover, even from the time it took over land for the Karakorum road under a law of 1894 .Advertisement

The project was initially welcomed, but customs revenues have gone straight into federal pockets. This is also why this time, the members of the Gilgit Baltistan Council, which ostensibly is the highest body for governance, have also joined the protests. The council is chaired by the Pakistan Prime Minister and packed with his representatives. The last demand involves India. the protestors want all ancient trade routes restored. Historians note that at least eight routes connected Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan into Central Asia. These ancient trade routes are today easily operable through the Kargil Skardu. What is different from the past, is that the main market is now India, not the long-ago metropoles of Samarkhand or even Turkey. This is not about historical memory or a sentimental renaissance. This is about practical profit-making and livelihood.Advertisement

All in all, the ongoing protests are a culmination of distress building up over the years. Somethings got to give, and soon. Solutions are obvious. Gilgit Baltistan should ideally be a part of India, but that is something Islamabad (and China) will resist by the skin of their teeth. Second, Pakistan could give Gilgit Baltistan full statehood – which China wants since it makes CPPEC paperwork easier – thus making the Kargil area into a regular border. India will resist that, as it should, given that it is legitimately a part of India. A mid-way solution is possible, where two-way trade is opened up between Gilgit Baltistan (only) and the Indian market, and Gilgit Baltistan is granted some rights to govern itself. It’s not the best solution, but as tempers rise, it seems to be the only one available.Advertisement

The writer is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. She tweets @kartha_tara. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s_ views.