Making A Difference

'J&K Is Better Off'

A Pakistani police officer tells the UN of life in the Northern Areas

Advertisement

'J&K Is Better Off'
info_icon

A Pakistani SSP posted in Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Kashmir has written to the UN secretary-general that Pakistani occupation of that part of Kashmir is illegal. A 35-page report by Amir Hamza, now under suspension and fighting in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to save his job, did more than challenge the constitutional validity of Pakistani occupation: it gave a flavour of what life is like in the 28,000 square mile area under a rule "worse than (that of) the East India Company."

More unexpectedly, the Pakistani officer listed several ways in which Indian Kashmir is far better off. The report of the officer was released in London by the Kashmir International Front which speaks for several pro-independence groups within Pakistani Kashmir. The police officer picked on evidence from an official statement in the Pakistani Supreme Court that has gone unreported in Pakistan and unnoticed in India. The statement was filed by way of an official response to a petition in the Supreme Court by a group called the Al Jihad Trust, challenging the validity of Pakistani occupation of the Northern Areas of Kashmir, or Gilgit and Baltistan as the two backward, mountainous areas are known locally.

Advertisement

But the statement, the officer said, actually denies the validity of what it describes as Pakistani "occupation" of the Northern Areas. In that statement, the Pakistani government challenges the petition on the ground that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the Northern Areas. The official statement then goes on to say that Parliament "has by law yet to admit into the federation Northern Areas on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit."

Only in 1994 did the Pakistani government pass an order to formalise some claims of control. It is "astonishing", the SSP wrote, that "Pakistan has been violating its claims and contentions before the UN." The report sent by the officer points to a fundamental flaw in Pakistan's position—that groups demanding merger with Pakistan for the sake of benefits are called anti-national. "If such elements were anti-Pakistan, how can political figures demanding autonomy also be treated as anti-Pakistan?"

Advertisement

He pointed to the official defence before the Supreme Court that "Pakistan exercises de facto sovereignty over Northern Areas"; that it "has exercised a continuous effective occupation of the Northern Areas for the past 50 years" and that through this period "there has been an effective and continuous display of state authority."

But "by that logic," Hamza wrote, "why will the government of Pakistan not recognise Kashmir as an integral part of India?" The Pakistani position on Kashmir has been weakened by such "bogus and contradictory" claims, the officer wrote. The Indian government, he says, has "always been trying to establish self-ruling governments since 1947, while the government of Pakistan has always been running the administration through a non-local bureaucracy."

 If a movement for self-determination is launched on the Pakistani side, he wrote, "I will not hesitate in expressing my view that the Pakistani government will kill 10 times more people than the Indian government." People in Indian Kashmir enjoy fundamental rights, he wrote, and it is the people of Gilgit and Baltistan who "have been suppressed more than the people of Indian occupied Kashmir for the last half century." Indian Kashmir has "100 per cent more development" than Pakistani Kashmir. The officer spoke of the need for "international pressure or armed street force" against Pakistani authorities.

The officer drew from his own experience to speak of miserable conditions. Among a list he presented are the following: Just one hospital in Islama-bad has 400 doctors while the entire Northern Areas has 125. Last year, Pakistan sanctioned more money for repairs to Nullah Lai of Rawalpindi than for the development of the Northern Areas. There are 50 colleges in "Azad Kashmir" spread over 4,500 square miles, and only five in the Northern Areas. Other than the Karakoran Highway that runs through the area, the Gilgit-Skardu Road and the Gilgit-Gopis Road, all roads are unmetalled. No political representative of this area has ever been allowed to visit foreign countries. Passports are rarely issued—"the need for passport never arises."

Advertisement

There's more. The Northern Light Infantry made up mostly of local people has been given second-rate powers compared to the army. The police officer said he knew of several cases of rape by Pakistani armymen. The officer's wife has also spoken in opposition to Pakistani occupation as a member of the Northern Areas council, whose powers Hamza described as "less than those of a municipal committee." For once, Pakistan was caught red-faced over Kashmir.

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement