The Gilgit-Baltistan election for its fourth Legislative Assembly, comprising 24 general seats is over and the unofficial results are in. The PTI and its allies are (unofficially) in the lead. With the results has come a reaction of protest by the opposition parties, the PPP and the PML-N. Both parties have rejected the election result, claiming massive fraud by the PTI and its allies, while the government says that the result shows that the opposition’s — in fact, the PDM’s — ‘narrative’ has failed. Bilawal Bhutto has been particularly fiery in his post-election addresses and has blamed the Election Commission for not being able to ensure a free and fair election. The PML-N too has expressed serious reservations regarding pre-poll rigging.
Generally, in Gilgit-Baltistan, and also Azad Kashmir, past electoral trends show that people vote for the party ruling in Islamabad in the hope that it will be able to offer the region some support and assistance. While seemingly this seems to have happened again, the PTI’s performance is not — at least till the time this is being written — as strong as one would think, given it runs the federal government. If one were to compare the results taken by both the PPP and the PML-N in Gilgit-Baltistan when they were in power, the PTI’s result is not as heartening for the ruling party as they would like to think. Despite not forming a government, the other parties have made a good showing, notably the PPP after a long campaign of nearly a month by Bilawal Bhutto who remained stationed in the Gilgit-Baltistan area and visited many of its parts. To some, though, the PPP’s result could and should have been better.
What has been very encouraging is the way people came out to vote in GB, except in the most remote areas where extremely heavy snowfall kept people away from polling booths. However, despite the snowfall, in other areas, women as well as elderly people did indeed come out to vote, showing how eager they are to gain real representation in their potential province. This is an encouraging sign. The next step for the parties involved is to bring about tasks which can help develop the area, where NGOs have already ensured good educational systems, and promote tourism in a manner which is sensitive to the local culture and people. It is also encouraging that four women were among those elected on general seats. This is unusual in the more remote parts of Pakistan, and notably in the north. We hope that after this election, Gilgit-Baltistan will grow in strength and be developed further as a province with huge potential. For that, the newly-empowered assembly must recognise the struggle waged by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in the face of often violent opposition from the centre. In the rest of the country, the 18th Amendment had forced the centre to devolve as much power as possible to the provinces. It is long past time for Gilgit-Baltistan to enjoy the same constitutional protections as the rest of the country.