Gilgit  - Unveiling the new Gilgit-Baltistan Order 2018, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Sunday that the new command encompassed all the components regarding basic rights and other safeguards available to the citizens of other provinces.

Addressing a joint session of G-B Assembly and G-B Council, the prime minister claimed that no government in the future could give a better order which, he said, did not need to be passed through the Parliament to give a constitutional cover.

He said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a game-changer feat and Gilgit was a gateway to the project. The premier urged the local leadership to exhibit vision and take maximum advantage of the project. “Gilgit-Baltistan is going to be one of the developed regions of Pakistan,” he said.

Abbasi congratulating the GB people said that it was a historic day for the region, whose denizens had been given all the rights and powers devolved to the GB Assembly. “The high court judges, future governors will be from Gilgit. GB will have a separate public service commission and a quota will be allotted for the people of the area in the Pakistan civil service,” he said.

During the prime minister’s speech in the GB Assembly, opposition members tore their copies of the GB Order 2018.

The opposition lawmakers belonging to the PPP, the PTI, the MWM and Islami Tehreek and an independent member stood up from their seats, chanted slogans and tore copies of the order before staging the walkout while the prime minister looked on occupying the podium.

PTI lawmaker Raja Jahanzeb, who was injured during the protest the other day, arrived in the assembly on crutches. During the commotion in the assembly, PML-N lawmaker Maj (retd) Muhammad Amin attacked Jahanzeb, who retaliated with one of his crutches. The opposition then staged a walkout.

After the opposition boycott, the prime minister said that it was the right of opposition to have reservations but added that opposition should be based on principles and they (opposition) also must listen to the government stance.

“The opposition should have listened to our views. It is not the right way to boycott the special session,” he said.

Meanwhile, MWM chief Alama Nasir Abbas said in a statement that GB was the only region whose inhabitants have been hoisting the flag of Pakistan for the last 77 years, pleading to be accepted as full citizens of the country. “But the short-sighted rulers are bent upon weakening the roots of the country by denying basic rights to the people of GB. GB Chief Minister, a representative of disqualified prime minister and a usurper, is denying the subject their basic constitutional rights,” he said warning that the continued denial of rights would have far-reaching negative consequences.

After the Assembly Session, the prime minister inaugurated the new building of GB Assembly and performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Gilgit-Naltar extension road and the Civil Secretariat building.

Meanwhile, a complete shutter down strike was observed in Gilgit city, Skardu, Ghizer and other districts to oppose the new order and express solidarity with the opposition lawmakers and Awami Action Committee members, who had been injured during the Saturday protest.

The shutter down strike had been called by the joint opposition of GB Assembly, the Awami Action Committee, the high court bar association and traders’ bodies.

On Saturday, a large number of people were injured after police used batons and shells to disperse the protesters who were marching on Chinar Bagh to stage a sit-in outside the GB Assembly building in protest against the GB order 2018.

Police fired teargas and shells on the protesters and as a result, two opposition lawmakers, Raja Jahanzaib and Rizwan Ali and Awami Action Committee Chairman Maulana Sultan Raees and others were injured.

 

 

PM praises GB Order, Opp members tear copies

 

 

MERAJ ALAM