ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top civil and military leaders have decided to give greater administrative and financial authority to
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and
Gilgit-Baltistan, the region through which the controversial $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes.
During a meeting of the National Security Committee-top civil and military body-Sartaj Aziz, deputy chairman of Planning Commission and ministry of Kashmir affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan, on Saturday briefed the committee on the PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan reform proposals, an official statement said.
The meet chaired by PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reviewed these proposals and after deliberations a consensus was reached on the "devolution of greater administrative authority and financial powers" to the POK government and Gilgit-Baltistan government, the statement said.
The details of administrative and financial reforms have not been shared so far. However, there was also consensus over retention of the POK and Gilgit-Baltistan councils as advisory bodies; and the grant of a five-year tax holiday to Gilgit-Baltistan so as to create adequate incentives for the development of the region and bring it on a par with other areas of Pakistan. pti
Gilgit-Baltistan is treated as a separate geographical entity by Pakistan. Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh are four provinces of Pakistan. India has termed as "entirely unacceptable" any possible attempt by Pakistan to declare the Gilgit-Baltistan region, bordering the disputed Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, as the fifth province. India has protested to China over the
CPEC, which goes through the Gilgit-Baltistan region. It is believed that China's concerns about the unsettled status of Gilgit-Baltistan prompted Pakistan to change its status.
Earlier media reports had said that Pakistan plans to elevate the constitutional status of the region to provide a legal cover to the CPEC. The NSC also endorsed that FATA shall be merged with
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with the introduction of the administrative and judicial institutional structures and laws of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the statement said.
