According to a media report, people of Gilgit-Baltistan have expressed their disappointment over the non-inclusion of interim province status for the region in the proposed 26th Constitutional Amendment, which was proposed by the ruling coalition of the federation. As per report, earlier, draft 26th amendment was prepared for granting of interim province status for the region under the ambit of Constitution of Pakistan, but the said draft was not tabled by the PTI led federal government, where-as Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly had too adopted a unanimous resolution for granting of provisional province status to the area. Media report further explained that a campaign was too launched for granting of interim province status to the area besides carrying out the rallies in the federal capital and other area in favor of the proposed province status for the area, but due to change of federal government at that time, the issue was kept under the carpet. According to media report, PML-N and PPP were begging the votes from the people of the area in the name of their rights and had formed the government in the region, but both the parties have ignored the G-B legal status issue during the proposed amendment in the Constitution of Pakistna-1973.
Granting of constitutional province status to the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan was under consideration of the federal government and PTI led federal government had also prepared a draft bill with the title of “26th Amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan” for granting of provisional l province status to the area, but the said bill could not be materialized due to various factors including the change of PTI led government during the year 2022. Now according to a media report, any another draft with the tittle of 26th Amendment was being circulated in the media where-in a number of amendments have been proposed in the Constitution of Pakistan, but the granting of provisional province status to the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan was not included in the proposed draft due to which people of the area have expressed their disappointment. It was also pointed out in the report that Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly (GBA) had also adopted a unanimous resolution in the year 2021 for granting of provisional province status to the area and major political parties of the country i.e PML-N and PPP were getting the votes of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in the names of their rights, but both the parties have ignored the G-B legal status issue during the proposed amendment. It may be pertinent to mention here that the though the 26th amendment draft could not be introduced in the parliament by the government and according to media reports, it would be again table with-in couple of days and it was great opportunity for the PPP and PML-N regional chapter leaders to apprise the concerns of G-B people to their respective leadership to get include the G-B provisional province status in the upcoming constitutional amendment, so that the people of the area may be able to get their due rights. Moreover, PPP and PML-N were both the coalition partners of the incumbent regional government and in the meanwhile they may get approved another resolution from the regional Assembly for inclusion of G-B legal status in the upcoming amendments in the Constitution of Pakistan.We may expect that regional chapter leaders of PPP, PML-N and JUI(F) would play their role and they would convince their party high-command to include the G-B legal status issue in the up-coming 26th constitutional amendment in the country, so that people of Gilgit-Baltistan may be able to enjoy their fundamental rights under the ambit of Constitution of Paistan-1973
