Regional government Minister for Finance/PPP General Secretary Engineer Muhammad Ismial while talking to this “media group” has said that President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardariand PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto would carry-out two days visit of the region during this month and he expressed his hope that issues of the region would be resolved. He also claimed that next government of the region would be formed by the PPP with the over whelming majority and PPP would contest the next general elections from all constitutes of the region and party leadership had already constituted a five member committee to prepare the recommendations regarding the party candidates. Regional finance minister has claimed that government of the region has urged to the federal government for provision of budget on the basis of NFC Award formula and if the budget would be provided as per the said formula, 150 billion rupees would get by the government of the area and it would reduce the financial problems of the government.
Governor of the region Syed Mehdi Shah and Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan had held a joint meeting with the President of Pakistan few days ago and had invited him to visit the region and address the G-B Assembly, which was acceded by the President of Pakistan. Now the regional government finance minister has claimed that President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would carry-out two days visit to the region during this month and he expressed his hope that issues of the region would be addressed, but it was not yet confirmed whether the President of Pakistan would address the regional Assembly or not and suggest any road map for the resolution of long-standing issue of the region i.e provision of constitutional province status for the area. As regards with the formation of government in the region by the PPP after winning the next general elections of the region, which would be held during the last quarter of 2025, it would be premature to comment upon the matter whether the PPP would win the majority seats of the regional Assembly or not as the PPP had won only two general seats in the general elections of the region held in the month of November 2020. Provision of budget to the government of the area on the basis of NFC Award formula was the right of regional government as the people of the area were paying all the indirect taxes imposed by the federal government, but they were getting not a single penny in return of that taxes and only getting a meager amount up-to 20 billion rupees as development budget of the area in the shape of grant in-aid through the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs in every year. It would be imperative to mention here that that if the constitutional status issue of the region under the ambit of Constitution of Pakistan would be addressed, government of the area would get the share out of NFC Award, so that government of the region was required to focus for getting the legal status of the region under the ambit of Constitution of Pakistan-1973 instead of demanding for the resolution of petty nature issues. It may be advantageous to mention here that it was the PPP le federal government under the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari, who had provided governance system to the area akin to a province of the country in the shape of Order-2009 and the President of Pakistan may also play his due role for the conferment of constitution province status to the region under the ambit of Constitution of Pakistan-1973 as the PML-N led federal government supported by the PPP do have the required majority in the parliament to carry-out amendments in the Constitution of Pakistan for granting of constitutional province status to the area in order to fulfill the long-standing demand of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
We may expect that President of Pakistan during visit to the region would address the Assembly of the area and announce a road-map for granting of constitutional province status to the area.
