GILGIT: The two major opposition parties in Gilgit-Baltistan have reached a consensus on dissolution of the GB Assembly so that the region could vote at the same time as the rest of Pakistan, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The assembly’s five-year tenure will end in November 2025.

A delegation of the PPP’s Gilgit- Baltistan chapter called on party leader Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the matter.

The delegation was led by the Leader of Opposition, Amjad Hussain. Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, the party’s secretary general, also attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, Hafeezur Rehman, a former chief minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N’s Gilgit chapter, met Amjad Hussain last week to thrash out a strategy in view of a growing clamour in the region for early elections.

According to the PML-N’s Aurangzeb Khan, a former law minister, there are two ways to dissolve the GB Assembly.

“One of them is that the chief minister advises the governor to dissolve the legislature, while the other is that the prime minister, as chairman of the GB Council, can approve a summary regarding amendments to GB Order 2018,” Aurangzeb Khan said.

According to the source, the local leaders of the PPP and PML-N had convinced the parties’ top leaderships of the need to hold elections in GB simultaneously with the rest of Pakistan.

GB uplift

Talking to the PPP delegation, former president Asif Ali Zardari said his party had always taken measures for the uplift of Gilgit-Baltistan whenever it was in power. “These included initiatives to resolve the region’s constitutional issues.”

The delegation included GB PPP’s General Secretary Engineer Muhammad Ismail, Senior Vice President Jamil Ahmed and Vice President Bashir Ahmed.

The PPP leader said GB was grappling with a host of health problems, including an alarming rise in the number of heart cases.

Therefore, a modern hospital for treatment of heart diseases would be established in the region as a “gift by the PPP leadership” to the people of GB, he added.

The former president instructed the delegation to reach out to the masses and raise their grievances at all forums that matter.

“The PPP has deep roots in Gilgit-Baltistan and will strive to fulfil the dreams of its people.”

Published in Dawn, January 23th, 2023