Gilgit-Baltistan to become 5th Pakistan province. What this means? |Sir Naveed Ghazali |CSS Examined

Gilgit-Baltistan to become 5th Pakistan province. What this means? |Sir Naveed Ghazali |CSS Examined
Gilgit-Baltistan formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constitutes the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947, and between India and China since 1950s.It is the northernmost area administered by Pakistan. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, the Xinjiang region of China, to the east and northeast, and the Indian-administered union territories Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the southeast.

Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the greater Kashmir region, which is the subject of a long-running conflict between Pakistan and India. The territory shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations and other international organizations as "Pakistan administered Kashmir". Gilgit-Baltistan is six times the size of Azad Kashmir. The territory also borders Indian-administered union territories Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to the south, and is separated from them by the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan.

The territory of present-day Gilgit-Baltistan became a separate administrative unit in 1970 under the name "Northern Areas". It was formed by the amalgamation of the former Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan district and several small former princely states, the largest of which were Hunza and Nagar. In 2009, it was granted limited autonomy and renamed Gilgit-Baltistan through the Self-Governance Order signed by President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, intended to also empower the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. However, scholars state that the real power rests with the governor and not with the chief minister or elected assembly. Much of the population of Gilgit-Baltistan wants it to become a fifth province of Pakistan and opposes integration with Kashmir. The Pakistani government has rejected Gilgit-Baltistan calls for provincial status on the grounds that granting it would jeopardies its demands for the entire Kashmir issue to be resolved according to UN resolutions. However, in November 2020, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan announced that Gilgit-Baltistan would attain provisional provincial status after the 2020 Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly election, a long-standing demand of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.