Political Upheaval in Gilgit Baltistan

Strange, isn’t it? As the poll nears in GB, there is a hullabaloo in politics and the never accepted region by the Pakistan is becoming more to the most important region for the national level parties. The proxies of the parties seem to be turned into real parties, becoming more and more concerned for empowering the indigenous people, and unveiling and lashing out the corruption by previous PPP government.

Every party is vowing to solve a dozen of issues, among which provincial setup is most prevalent in all. This is not a new maneuver for political parties; the past is full of such tactics and pledges. Same hollow pledges were made by the previous PPP government, among which top assurances were; establishment of a medical college in Skardu, internationalization of Gilgit and Skardu airports, big city status for Gilgit and Skardu city and so on.

Past practices reveal that the central government has always been a victorious party, but this time the situation is somehow uncertain. PML-N, currently the most dominant party in term of upcoming polls, has lost its grip due to its unpredictable policy; formulation of caretaker government and appointment of the new governor. The imported governor and formulation of a caretaker government, having more than dozen of ministries has created suspicion in people. Moreover, PPP is availing of the opportunity to improve its tainted image. PTI’s evolution in the region is marvelous, as it has found few competent candidates, but this would not be a dominant one for this election. The upcoming election is expected to bring a dozen of juvenile parties and candidates, which if not coalesces; it would be a win-win situation for PPP and PML-N.

Campaign for the election is part of the democracy but making promises for wooing votes is not a right way, which every party should keep in mind