The Awami Action Committee (AAC) and the joint opposition parties will meet on Monday to formulate a strategy to continue their protest against the draconian Gilgit Baltistan (GB) Order of 2018 on Monday, Maulana Sultan Raees, a central AAC leader, told Daily Times on telephone.
He said the protests would continue until the 2018 order is revoked and an Act of Parliament passed in its place. The latter was needed, he said, to ensure a semblance of permanency of governance reforms. Additionally, he said, the framework laid out in the 2018 order extended extraordinary powers to the Prime Minister, keeping the institutions in Gilgit toothless. He said the AAC wanted true empowerment for the region, adding that the specifics could be worked out by Islamabad in view of its foreign policy imperatives. “We have sacrificed for the sake of Pakistan for 70-years. Our protest is not intended to blackmail anymore. We want our right to self-representation. If the [federal] government cannot grant us a provincial status in view of its stance on Kashmir, we’re willing to discuss other possibilities in which the region gets complete autonomy over all legislative subjects except defence, foreign affairs, and communications,” he said.
Raees said that once a new government had been elected in Islamabad, the AAC would prepare a draft with governance reforms it wanted for the region. The draft would be shared with the government and the joint opposition so that it could be implemented.
The AAC and the joint opposition have held a series of rallies, attracting sizeable crowds, across the region to register their protest against the GB Order 2018. On Saturday, several protesters were injured as a contingent of law enforcement agencies charged them with batons.
Published in Daily Times, May 28th 2018.
