The Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order announced by the Pakistan government early this month caused a flurry of protests in New Delhi’s diplomatic circles as the territory falls within the contentious Jammu and Kashmir disputed area. The issue:

What are the Northern Areas?

Of the Kashmiri territory occupied by Pakistan in 1947-48, the Sunni majority areas were constituted by it into a separate administrative unit which Pakistan calls “Azad Kashmir” and India calls “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”. The Shia majority areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, which were known before 1947 as the Northern Areas of Jammu & Kashmir and which had been given on lease by the pre-1947 ruler of Jammu & Kashmir to the British, were incorporated into Pakistan and have been directly ruled from Islamabad.

Why have they been in the news recently?

The Pakistan government approved a self-governance and reforms package for the Northern Areas which entails that the strategically-located Northern Areas will have rights akin to those of Pakistan’s four provinces, (Punjab, Sind, NWFP, Balochistan). The “Gilgit- Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order 2009” also aims at giving the Northern Areas “full internal autonomy” and changing the region’s name to Gilgit-Baltistan. Under the new system, the Northern Areas will have a province-like status without actually being conferred such a status constitutionally. The region will vote for a legislative assembly, elections to which are to be held in the next three months and a chief minister will govern the region, replacing direct rule by Islamabad

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