Construction contractors in Gilgit-Baltistan have halted their work as the Pakistan government who has illegally occupied the region has failed to pay them their pending dues of 13 billion rupees.
Fresh tenders for development projects have been stopped by the Chief Secretary as there is lack of funds. This has resulted in many workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab (Pakistan) to flee and go somewhere else in search of jobs. The rate of joblessness has increased many folds and Gilgit- Baltistan is being gripped with unemployment and starvation adding to the already problems faced by the people under the occupier (Pakistan).
The fate of POGB remains in limbo as countries or money lending organizations refuse to lend loans to the subjugated area and there is no money in the national exchequer even though grants to the Pakistan government is in billions.
Few months ago POGB witnessed complete shutter-down wheel jam strike and the people came out in protest against land grabbing, illegal taxes, wheat subsidy cuts, and non-provision of other basic human amenities in every district in Gilgit-Baltistan following a call by the Awami Action Committee.
UKPNP Chairman, Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, in his intervention, informed the UN Human Rights Council that Article (19)-1 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights guarantees everyone the right to hold opinions without interference. “The people of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, however, have not had this freedom since 1947. Pakistan is systematically violating the land rights of the people of Pakistan in its peripheries,” he said.