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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Mainstreaming of GB sans rollback

Head of PPP Media CellSome are compulsive contemplators to become history than making history. Others show red rag to bull without provocation. Still others cut the ground from underneath their feet attributed to their poor judgments. The incumbent rulers are the perfect allegory of all for their indulgence in such

By Akram Shaheedi
February 26, 2015
Head of PPP Media Cell
Some are compulsive contemplators to become history than making history. Others show red rag to bull without provocation. Still others cut the ground from underneath their feet attributed to their poor judgments. The incumbent rulers are the perfect allegory of all for their indulgence in such endeavours those can hardly be justified by the criterion of ordinary prudence. The latest of the kind is the appointment of Governor G/B, Burgees Tahir, a federal minister.
His appointment as Governor has not sunk well in with the fair-minded people because he is considered by the people of G/B as an outsider and therefore unacceptable. They have protested in the federal capital and in Gilgit/ Baltistan including other urban centers of the region rejecting the appointment of governor by arguing it tantamount to usurping the autonomy given to the region in the 2009 Act under PPP government. It is a matter of common political sense that the son of the soil should be appointed as governor because the people feel comfortable in communicating with him to redress their problems. Their comfort level promotes belongingness in all directions. An outsider will be considered like a stranger with inherent problems of inhibition imbedded. His appointment is being deemed as a prelude of rolling back the autonomy given to the region by the previous PPP government. He is also perceived as an instrument to rule the region through remote control, amply against the wishes of the people.
The outgoing Governor Pir Karam Ali Shah has threatened to challenge its legality in the court. There were unpleasant scenes at the oath taking ceremony of the new governor that would not augur well and the increase in the tension is inevitable. It has already triggered protests in G/B and in Islamabad demanding his removal and designating a well respected politician hailing from G/B. It is a legitimate demand and the government should concede to it with open mind. It should be done by the government sooner than later and any procrastination in this regard will be both counter-productive and harmful because the people will get offended with the attitude of the federal government.
The impression of the people of treating G/B as colony will get strengthened. It will be naïve if the old system of controlling the region is revisited. It will be two steps backward at the expense of the people of the region. The matter can be addressed easily without creating political mess. The ruling party will earn good repute if it changes the governor. It will be doubly good if the government takes the political leadership of other spectrums into confidence on the matter in the interest of the forthcoming elections of the legislative assembly of G/B in May this year.
The government should respond to the demands of the people upfront. But, ironically, the style of the rulers prefers to follow the narrative of one hundred onions by default before embarking on backtracking on the matter that should have been taken care off earlier without much dithering. The leadership ensures to earn discredit even when credit is due sporadically.
The major political parties of the country have also rejected the decision by describing the appointment of governor as pre-poll rigging, and demanded his immediate replacement with consensus. The PPP has described it as a step tantamount to rolling back the autonomy given by its government. It hurts the narrative of devolution and shores up the tendency of concentration of power that is harmful to the federation and indeed to the spirit of the Constitution.
The PTI has also poured its opprobrium over the decision with likely negative fall out on the political environment in the rest of the country. The PTI has also raised serious reservations on the appointment of G/B Chief Election Commissioner. The country is already facing the crisis situation attributed to the rigging allegations and the development in G/B are going to aggravate the same rather than reducing the acrimony. The criticism of the opposition parties, the G/ B opposition leadership and the civil society is justified because elections in the region under the new governor may become controversial.
The emergence of such situation must be avoided as the country had already enough on its plate and controversy in G/B may not prove as the final straw to break the back of the whole electoral process. The government should try its utmost to build bridges as political unity is most needed when the country is in a state of war. The prime minister must reach out to consult other political leadership and take them into confidence on contentious issues like this. Pakistan cannot afford confrontation in the internal front. The government should install a consensus caretaker government responsible for holding legislative assembly elections. The imposition of the new governor will be taken by others with an offence. Regretfully, the government has shown no interest so far to take the subject with requisite seriousness. Consensus should be built as the holding of free, fair and impartial elections are at stake.
It may be recalled that the PPP previous government through Gilgit/Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Ordinance, 2009, accorded special status to the region giving it autonomy, its own governor and chief minister to govern the region through their representatives. The name of the region as Gilgit/Baltistan was also given in place of Northern Areas to calibrate it with its identity. It was the beginning of the fulfilling the threshold of participatory democracy for the first time.
Legally, the territory of G/B is not the Pakistan’s territory according to the Constitution of the country and as such used to be governed by Islamabad through its appointee before PPP gave it a special status. Its status is neither here nor there and it’s linking with the Kashmir dispute has made it problematic. The government should give a serious thought to make it another province of the federation after taking the other political parties on board. The people should be clear about their future and their fate should not be allowed to hang in the balance unabatedly.
The rocky start of the tenure of the new governor will not bode well for the region. Its blowback will heat up the already tense political environment in the rest of the country. The incumbent governor is not generally held in high esteem due to his excessive partisan posturing.
It is for this reason that other political parties have been raising objections on his appointment. Their reservations clearly imply the holding of fair, free and impartial elections will be a far-fetched cry. The government should seek the way out after consulting the other political parties in order to hold elections in such a way that no one could raise finger on the credibility of the electoral process.
Federal government should desist from taking any step that gives the feeling to the people of the region as being treated as colony. The appointment of minister for Kashmir Affairs as governor certainly strengthens the feelings of colonisation, which were comprehensively addressed earlier by the 2009 Ordinance under the PPP government. Then government gave the ownership to the people of the region and their leaders by granting them autonomy to run the affairs of the territory through their representatives. The promotion of political culture in the region was a frog leap to make them stakeholders in the real sense. But, this government has apparently reversed the process of the promotion of political culture in the region with the unilateral decision devoid of political sagacity. It is unfair and therefore will not be sustainable in political, moral and legal sense. The government is better advised to reconsider its decision to cut its political cost.
muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com