The constitutional package President General Pervez Musharraf announced for the Northern Areas on Tuesday, can at best be seen as a case of 'something is better than nothing'. Otherwise, it does little to address the aspirations of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan region, officially named as the Northern Areas.
As per the package, the Northern Areas Council gets upgraded to the status of a legislative assembly with power to debate and pass the annual budget; and the Areas' deputy chief executive is to be promoted as the chief executive in place of Federal Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas who becomes chairman.
All the administrative and financial powers of the ministry, the President said, would be transferred to the Areas' government. In an apparent attempt to defer the basic democratic tenet of accountability, he said the legislative assembly would be able to take up no-confidence motions against the chief executive, speaker and deputy speaker.
The changes seem to be reflective of progress towards recognising the people's democratic rights to self-governance and financial autonomy. But in effect this loosening of federal control will only benefit the 'nobles' who run the local affairs in collaboration with the federal authorities. It says nothing about empowering the people and ignores important issues and concerns agitating the public mind.
The Northern Areas, it may be recalled, wrested their freedom from Indian rule during the Kashmir war of 1948. Successive governments in Pakistan have kept them in a state of political limbo, linking the question of their status within Pakistan/Azad Kashmir to the resolution of the Kashmir issue although legal experts are dismissive of the necessity of such a linkage.
Even if there was to be a linkage, it made no sense to deny the people their democratic right to vote and elect their representatives to sit at least in the Azad Kashmir assembly. The package announced by General Musharraf, once again, makes no mention either of the people's right to universal suffrage or about granting the Areas provincial status.
The only substantive measure it includes is the proposed setting up of a commission, to be headed by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, which is to resolve the boundary dispute between the Northern Areas and NWFP.
The least it could have done was to pay heed to the 1998 Supreme Court judgement on the subject, which asked the government to introduce fundamental human rights together with an independent judicial system in the Areas, and to delink them from the Kashmir dispute.
The government betrays a complete disconnect from on-the-ground reality. Like any other people those living in our Northern Areas too aspire to have the freedom to choose their representatives and demand respect for all their democratic rights.
The step-motherly treatment meted out to them over the years has generated simmering discontent, even a separatist movement. The situation is unacceptable whether viewed from an independent perspective or that of the affected people.
Discontent such as this, we in this country know well enough, can easily lead to unpalatable consequences. It is imperative therefore for the government to follow up the present package with a new one which, taking guidance from the Supreme Court judgement, introduces truly democratic reforms in our Northern Areas.
Comments
Comments are closed.