‘People of Gilgit-Baltistan living in Karachi have always supported PPP’

Opposition leader in the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly Amjad Advocate said the people hailing from Gilgit Baltistan in Karachi had always supported the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the metropolis and their hometowns.

During his visit to Karachi, he met several delegations of youth and elders of Gilgit Baltistan living in the city for decades.

He said the PPP would field the community members in the upcoming local government polls in the neighbourhoods where the people from Gilgit Baltistan were living in significant numbers.

Lines Area, Kamran Chowrangi, Korangi, Hussain Hazara Goth, Jaffer Tayyar Society, Mianwali Colony and Garden are among such areas.

Amjad Advocate, who is also the PPP Gilgit Baltistan president, alleged that the Gilgit polls had been rigged and a ‘selected’ government had been installed there.

“The PPP emerged as the single largest party in the Gilgit Baltistan polls but the mandate of people was stolen through rigging,” he remarked.

He said the PPP had strong historical roots in the Gilgit Baltistan region. “PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the pioneer of reforms in Gilgit Baltistan. By abolishing the FCR, feudal rule, and forced labour without pay, the PPP saw Gilgit Baltistan become a party stronghold,” he said.

He alleged that similar to occupying islands of Sindh, the federal government had also been occupying Gilgit Baltistan’s grasslands in the name of national parks. “But people of Gilgit Baltistan will not allow Islamabad to grab their ancestors’ lands,” he said.