Islamabad, Nov 29 (ANI): An area of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir might have been given limited autonomy in 2009 and hailed as a successful model for the disputed region, but many of its residents still believe that autonomy there is nothing more than an "illusion".
From jail, where he was imprisoned along with about 50 other political workers, Jan claims taht the real reason for his detention and indefinite extension is politically motivated.
Jan's Labor Party's actively demanding greater autonomy and a referendum on independence for Gilgit-Baltistan, which lies in disputed Kashmir. Pakistan does not want that.
"We want our assembly to decide whether to join China, Pakistan, or India - but I'd prefer independence. Why join a country that uses terrorism in the name of Islam? No human rights, no political rights and no free judges. No one wants to stay with this country and that's why the intelligence agencies hound us," the Christian Science Monitor quotes Jan, as saying.
Reports suggest that three years after getting autonomy, many in this region say they are not seeing enough change.
"We don't control any of our own income generating ministries - tourism, forestry, water and power, gems, or commerce and works," Nawaz Khan Naji, founder and president of the Balawaristan National Front, said.
Autonomy is an illusion, he says, because Gilgit-Baltistan has not been formally recognized as a province in Pakistan's constitution. It is governed according to a "colonial system" by Islamabad-appointed bureaucrats under a council headed by Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. Naji's party goes further than the Labour Party and demands outright independence. (ANI)
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