GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan is a disputed area and its final destiny is yet to be decided in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations. Therefore, to launch any mega project in the region is a violation of the international laws.
Despite opposition by the people of the region, the government of Pakistan seems hell-bent on construction of the dam. This is being done despite that fact that the World Bank has already refused to provide funds for the project terming the site of the dam seismically active. Before that the government did not take into consideration the reservations of the people of Diamer and named the proposed dam as Bhasha in order to provide the benefit of the dam like royalty to the NWFP.
Now it is leant that under the pressure of the NWFP, the federal government has agreed to give 70 per cent of the royalty from the dam to the Frontier and the remaining 30 per cent to Gilgit-Baltistan. It is a fact that the construction of the dam will submerge a large swath of land including the Karakoram Highway in the region.Besides, a large number of people are also poised to be displaced from the project.
Yet, the rulers are planning to give the major chunk of the royalty to the NWFP. People of the region consider this as a ploy to eliminate them altogether. This policy should be condemned by all as the rulers are planning to destroy the people of the region for providing water and electricity to the people of other areas.
On the one hand the government of Pakistan shelved the Kalabagh Dam project after failing to develop consensus despite its efforts spanning over 40 years and on the other it is hell-bent on constructing the Diamer dam in a disputed area without regard to the reservations of the local people as well as world bodies.
To make the matter worse, Pakistan is even not ready to give the rightful royalty to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and wants to divert to the NWFP for political expediency at the cost of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The people of Gilgit-Baltistan seem helpless as nowhere in the world their pleas and reservations are being taken up seriously. Neither they have any representation in the constitutional bodies of Pakistan nor do they have any powerful elected assembly of their own.
The people of the region have only one option to defend their rights – to rise from the slumber and get united against all injustices of Pakistan and fight for their rights.
Otherwise, the next generation will not forgive them for their slackness.
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