Gilgit-Baltistan polls attract diplomats’ attention

ISLAMABAD: The polls and their outcome in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) have attracted attention of diplomatic community of the federal Capital to a great deal as they were monitoring the whole process of electioneering with fair amount of interest on regular basis.

Well-placed diplomatic sources told The News here Sunday that the political sections of the foreign missions kept gathering details regarding the speeches made by different leaders in the GB during the election campaign and sought analysis of the same from the experts of their choice so that they could have pragmatic assessment of the situation from their perspective.

The sources reminded that the interest of the foreign missions wasn’t without any reason since Gilgit-Baltistan’s geographical location is of paramount interest to the countries which are interested in gigantic flagship project of One Belt One Road (OBOR) and China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from their respective viewpoint especially in the background of Pakistan-India hostile relationship and India’s misplaced claims about the area and the CPEC.

Gilgit-Baltistan being the origination point of the CPEC is a source of interest for the regional countries and important world capitals. The diplomats kept busy in collecting trends of the elections of GB the whole day despite it was a holiday. They were engaged in tabulating their assessment for their headquarters. They were busy till midnight to have complete picture but couldn’t make a fair assessment of the last tally of the winners.

The sources said the dispatches of the diplomatic missions have given the impression that the polling day was free from major irregularities. They did report about the high-handedness as part of pre-poll rigging when the strong arm tactics and other methods were used for shifting loyalties of the influential and traditional winning candidates of the area in the days before the elections. The diplomats were pleasantly surprised about the rate of turnout despite it is difficult and rugged terrain. They termed it healthy sign for democracy in Pakistan. The smooth pattern of polling also impressed the diplomats. The diplomats couldn’t get any information from the Foreign Office which is formal link for having authentic information with regard to their host country.

No international observer was allowed to watch the process of voting by staying in GB, but the media was provided free and generous access to report the events that helped the diplomatic community to make its assessments conveniently. The diplomats also used their contacts for obtaining relevant information, the sources pointed out. The GB elections evoked interest of the diplomatic community in Islamabad for the first time although these were the third elections in the area.