Ex-Chief Minister/PML-N regional chapter President HafeezurRehman while talking with the journalists during his visit to the union of journalist’s office in Gilgit has revealed that next general elections of the region would be held in the month of October 2025 and present Assembly of the area would be dissolved in the month of June 2025. He further said that Assembly of the region would be dissolved in the month of June 2025, where-as next general elections of the region would be held in the month of October 2025 as it was agreed during the formation of incumbent government. Former Chief Minister of the region also said that political and religious parties of the region are being invited for the preparation of suggestions regarding the granting of interim province status to the area, he added that there were movement’s in the other parts of the country, but the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan was only part which was straggling for the merger of the region as constitutional part of the country. PML-N regional chapter President has urged to the political parties of the region to avoid from propagating for the provincial status during the election campaign as the region could not be conferred the status of a province of the country due to Kashmir dispute.
General elections of the region were held during the month of November 2020 and under the provisions of “Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order-2018”, the term of the Assembly has been fixed for a period of five years and tenure of the present Assembly of the area would be complete during the month of November 2025. Government of the area formed in the region in the wake of general elections of 2020 led by PTI, but after the fake degree case of Ex-Chief Minister Khalid Khursid, the government of the region was changed in the month of July 2023 and incumbent government headed by Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan was formed in the region. Now the Ex-Chief Minister/PML-N regional chapter President HafeezurRehman has revealed that it was decided at the time of formation of the incumbent government that the Assembly of the region would be dissolved during the month of June 2025 and next general elections of the region would be held in the month of October-2025. PML-N regional chapter president also said that political and religious parties of the region are being invited for the preparation of suggestions pertaining to grating of interim province status to the area and explained that the region could not be coffered the full-scale constitutional province status to the region due to Kashmir dispute and urged the political parties to avoid from propagating for the constitutional province status for the area during the election campaign. It may be pertinent to mention here that a seven member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had directed the federal government on 17th January 2019 that the people of the region be coffered the same rights as were available to the people of other provinces of the country, but this decision was not yet implemented by the incumbent federal government as well as the previous federal government led by PTI. It would be appropriate for the PML-N regional chapter to convene an All Parties Conference (APC) of all political and religious parties of the region and develop consensus over the legal status of the area as interim province of the country, so that the regions legal status issue could be included during the next constitutional amendment
