President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari during his meeting with the Governor of the region Syed Mehdi Shah and Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan has said that cooperation with the government of the region would be continue as he has special affiliation with the area. Governor and Chief Minister during their joint meeting with the President have congratulated him on assumption of the slot of President of Pakistan and invited him to visit the region and address the regional Assembly. Both the leaders of the region have briefed the President regarding the major issues of the area and urged for the introduction of political reforms in the region as has been long-standing demand of the people, where-as they pointed out about the need of flight service between Kashgar China to Gilgit-Baltistan besides increase the existing flight operation of domestic and international flight for the region. Governor ad Chief Minister of the area have further urged for provision of more PSDP projects for the area as well as completion of on-going projects. President of Pakistan during the meeting has reportedly said that we have taken steps in the past to include the region in the mainstream and international flights operation would be extended to the area by up-grading the existing airports.
Pakistan People Party (PPP) led federal government during the previous tenure of the President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari had introduced the G-B Order-2009 in order to empower the people of the area and given the name of Gilgit-Baltistan to the area instead of Northern Areas. It was the PPP led federal government which had introduced the slot of Governor and Chief Minister for the region under the Order-2009 and people of the region were expecting that they would again get the political reforms/province status during the 2nd tenure of the President Asif Ali Zardari and that’s why the Governor and Chief Minister of the area have jointly urged to the President of Pakistan for introduction of more political reforms in the region, which was long-standing demand of the people. As regards with the PSDP projects, development budget of the region was much meager and it was not possible for the government of the area to launch mega development projects in the region for the welfare of general public unless and until the federal government may not allocate mega projects (in the shape of PSDP projects) and President of Pakistan may play a vital role in this regard. It is pertinent to mention here that presently PIA was operating light service for Gilgit, which is capital of the region and other private airlines were not operating their service due to limited capacity of the existing airport of Gilgit and other technical reasons. Where-as Skardu Airport has been given the status of international airport and PIA had recently announced to operate direct flights from Dubia to Skardu and a private airline (Air Blue)) was also operating its flight service from Islamabad to Skardu, President of Pakistan has assured the both the top leaders of the region for extending the domestic and international flights operation for the region besides up-grading the existing airports, which is good development and starting of direct international flights from the region would be a milestone in the development of the region as well as attract foreign tourists towards the region.We may expect that President of Pakistan would play his due role for granting of province status to the area, so that the people of the region may be able to get equal rights under the ambit of Constitution of Pakistan-1973
