WASHINGTON – Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan, like Balochistan and Pashtunistan, is seeing increased prominence of women’s participation in the region’s rights and freedom movements. On Monday, a video went viral in which a woman in Gilgit city exposed the follies of Pakistan’s colonial rulers in a way that won locals’ hearts.
The lady was among a large crowd that had blocked the roads in Gilgit to highlight the failure of officials to provide basic services such as potable water, electricity, and employment opportunities. She claimed they only get water for half an hour every ten days. In such circumstances, individuals must walk for miles to the river to gather water. Imagine the level of development in the outlying reaches of the so-called province if people in the capital urban sprawl were forced to go without basic essentials.
As the audience gathered to hear her speak, she stated that people have been denied political and constitutional rights for the past 78 years since Pakistan acquired control of the area. She reiterated that people vehemently oppose Pakistan’s approach of running the place on charity and handouts and demand self-rule over all local means of production. She bemoaned that, in the last 78 years, while Pakistan has made billions from our precious gems, gold, and other resources, all the locals have received from the rulers is rotten and expired wheat. She lamented that all the money Pakistan received from China under CPEC had failed to benefit Gilgit-Baltistan.
She questioned why Gilgit must import rulers from Pakistan’s Punjab province when locals possess the necessary knowledge, skills, and expertise to administer their own territory. It does not make sense to bring so many outsiders when there is widespread unemployment in the territory, she exclaimed. She said that Pakistani rulers use sectarianism and terrorism to divide and weaken the masses. Shias and Sunnis of Gilgit-Baltistan wish to live in harmony without quarreling, but Pakistani rulers create rifts to prolong their illegal stay.
She emphatically demanded that Pakistani rulers vacate Gilgit Baltistan immediately because they had usurped the inhabitants’ right to self-government. As the crowd cheered, she said, “We do not need your charity. We are hard-working people and shall create laws to manage our economy and land.”
It behooves Pakistani rulers to pay heed to the just demands of the locals and mend their ways. As we have witnessed in neighboring Iran, women’s participation in freedom movements renders them unstoppable. The freedom movement in Balochistan did not become a populist mass movement until women like Karima Baloch and Mahrang Baloch became flagbearers, leading the masses from the front. The entire Gilgit-Baltistan is celebrating this lady, demonstrating how unpopular Pakistan has become in the occupied territory.
Pakistan has been running this territory for more than 78 years and has nothing to show the residents. Pakistan’s leadership routinely invokes UNSC and UNCIP resolutions to resolve land disputes with India. The time has come for Pakistan to align its actions with the much-touted beliefs by implementing the resolution, which calls for the immediate withdrawal of all Pakistani citizens from the entire POJK, including Gilgit Baltistan. Constitutionally, the populations of POJK, including Gilgit Baltistan, are Indian citizens. The withdrawal of Pakistani nationals will provide locals with the long-awaited opportunity to speak directly with New Delhi and formulate a sustainable plan to protect and develop their cultural, political, and economic rights.
Senge Sering
Senge Sering is a native of Pakistan-occupied-Gilgit-Baltistan and runs the Washington DC based Gilgit Baltistan Studies
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