India has formally lodged a protest, though belatedly; two weeks after Pakistan announced the autonomous package. This shows the magnitude of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government’s concern for an issue of epochal importance.

Several political outfits in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Kashmiri separatists, including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik, have taken exception to Pakistan’s motives of diluting the ‘Kashmir cause.’ According to Kashmiri separatist leader exiled in Pakistan, Syed Salahuddin, any change in the state’s status-quo would impinge on its ‘territorial integrity’ and will have a negative impact on the Kashmir issue.

The Ministry of External Affairs has handed over two protest notes to Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner, one pertaining to the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order of 2009, which seeks to implement package for the Northern Areas, and the other relates to the construction of the Bunji dam in PoK (which legally belongs to India) , with Chinese help. India, as its wont, has woken up late. Needless to say, Pakistan has dismissed India’s protests as of no consequence.

It may be recalled that the European Union (EU) nearly two years ago debunked Pakistan’s claim to Siachen Glacier as well as Northern Areas. It had also ruled out plebiscite for Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has been claiming Siachen as part of the Northern Areas. British member of the European Parliament and Kashmir Rapportuer, Emma Harriet Nicholson observed that Gilgit and Baltistan region “are not and were never part of Jammu and Kashmir” Baroness Nicholson, author of the European Parliament’s report on Kashmir had blasted Pakistan for failing to fulfil its obligations to introduce ‘meaningful democratic structure’ on its side of Kashmir. A similar report was published, almost simultaneously, by the Brussels-based Conflict Prevention Group---the International Crisis Group on Pakistan’s neglect of Northern Areas—thus flogging Pakistan. Nicholson had extensively quoted the leased agreement of 1935, according to which Gilgit and Baltistan were in the domain of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. It also formed part of the instrument of accession, signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947.

British author Alastair Lamb, in his book “Incomplete Partition” has noted that the entire Gilgit Agency (or Northern Areas) was the product of a ‘Particular British strategic problem’. He has quoted then British Political Agent in Gilgit, G Loch as observing: “The present Agency was established in 1889, in order to prevent Russia establishing itself in a position from which she could offer a threat” to the British Indian empire”.

“As a matter of practical convenience, the Agency was attached at that time (1889 ) to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, though to all intents and purposes, it remained under direct British authority”, he says.

The Baroness had observed that she had “checked maps, treaties, historic documents and speeches, putting together with full extreme care a full and comprehensive picture from 1846 until today (2007)”. She has elaborated further: “All the evidence points to the fact that Gilgit and Baltistan regions were constituents of Jammu and Kashmir by 1877, under the sovereignty of Maharaja Gulab Singh, and remained in the domain of the independent princely state, up to and including the formation of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947.”

The Northern Areas are sandwiched between the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram range of mountains in the North and western Himalayas in the South. The area comprises of five districts: Gilgit, Ghizar, Zhanchay, Baltistan and Diamir. Its area is 72,496 square km, with a population of nearly six lakh. It is scarcely populated. The Northern Areas touch Sinkiang and Afghan Pamirs in the North and touch 480 km long LoC in the South.

The region was ruled by the Buddhist kings from 3rd century to the 11th century. It came under the kingdom of Dardistan and thereafter under the influence of Islam. People are mostly blue-eyed and yellow-skinned. They are of Aryan descent. The region has lost its status, following its annexation by Pakistan. The relationship between Pakistan and Northern Areas was governed by the 1949 Karachi Agreement, which was not signed by any representative from the region. As per the agreement, the affairs of Gilgit were handed over from the ‘Political Agent’ to the government of Pakistan.

In October 1990, three representatives from the Northern Areas filed a writ petition in the “Azad Kashmir” (PoK) High Court. They wanted to know the status of their ‘home-land’ under the “Azad Kashmir” interim constitution of 1974. In a lengthy judgment delivered in April 1993, the Court held that given the “political, legal and constitutional status of the Northern Areas, it was part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir”. The judgment had shaken the then Pakistan administration.

A year later in September 1994, the Supreme Court of Pakistan also held that “Areas did form part of Azad Kashmir, and that it should be treated as such.” Immediately, the “Azad Kashmir Assembly” adopted a resolution demanding the integration of the Northern Areas into “Azad Kashmir”.

According to Glasgow-based author Khalid Rahim, who hails from Mirpur (PoK), local sensitivities of the Northern Areas have been brushed aside by Pakistan, as a large number of people belonging to the Sunni Muslims from Punjab and Sindh, have been settled in Gilgit, the area largely dominated by the Shias.. Much of the business has gone into the hands of outsiders, who could settle effortlessly because of the non-existence of the state subject rules which are prevalent in Jammu and Kashmir since the Maharaja’s time. This changed the demographic character of not only PoK and Northern Areas.

In 1947, when Pakistan invaded Jammu and Kashmir, it was the ‘Political Agent’ who was in control of then ‘Gilgit Agency’, comprising the Gilgit sub-division, the states of Hunza and Nagar, the sub-agency of Chilas and the political districts of Punial, Koh-e-Ghizar, Yasin and Ishkoman. Gilgit Agency also included Astor district and Skardu, besides parts of Kargil, Ladakh and Gurez niabat, says Rehman.

In November 1947, Pakistan formally annexed the Northern Areas by appointing a Political Agent for Gilgit. A few months later, he was brought under the administrative control of the Political Resident for NWFP in 1950. Subsequently, the control of the region was transferred from NWFP’s Governor to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs by Pakistan.

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