Gilgit-Baltistan boils in anger against Pakistan
reforms packages in the territory over the last seven decades, among which the most recent is the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and SelfGovernance) Order 2009.
The 2009 order has established two organs, namely, Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) and GilgitBaltistan Council. However, the Legislative Assembly is restricted to subjects like foreign affairs, defence, internal security and fiscal plans of the government of Pakistan. But superseding the Assembly is the Council, which has the Prime Minister as its chairman. It controls subjects like minerals, water and power, tourism, forests, customs and excise duties, and also has the power to impose taxes on means of production, corporations, agriculture, sale and purchase of goods, capital value of assets and terminal taxes on carriages and passengers.
At present, the protesters are demanding the federal government of Pakistan to amend the Tax Adaptation Act 2012 and impose taxes only on non-local companies and contractors and, thus, exclude the people of GilgitBaltistan from the tax net.
However, explaining why annulment of the tax regime will hurt the region, the Chief Minister of Gilgit Baltistan, Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman, while speaking to the local media, said, “Gilgit-Baltistan receives Rs 100 billion from Federation while the volume of direct and indirect taxes has touched about Rs 5 billion mark. Compulsory documentation done under the Act controlled the corruption. Telecom companies were collecting taxes from people and spending it on people's welfare due to this important Act. Megaprojects of PSDP and CPEC have been started, in which national and multinational companies were taking part. These companies are paying taxes in other provinces and would have to pay taxes here at Gilgit Baltistan too.” Amidst the lack of free press and negligent coverage in mainstream Pakistani media, Seth Oldmixon, strategic expert and founder of Liberty South Asia, an independent, privately funded campaign dedicated to support religious freedom and political pluralism in South Asia, said that it was difficult to accurately judge the scale and frequency of the protests: “But from what we are seeing, suggests that these have become more than mere tax protests.”
“Whatever sparked these protests originally, they have since been co-opted by Pakistani political parties and Islamist groups looking to use the protests as a mechanism to accelerate the full provincial accession of Gilgit-Baltistan into Pakistan. Incidentally, (this is) a move opposed by the Hurriyat Conference, which views resolving G-B's status separately as undermining the larger Kashmiri movement. This is how the protests are being framed in Pakistan—as something of a ‘pro-Pakistan' movement— which is an important context,” said Oldmixon.
The locals have also protested against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), highlighting its impact on climate and the indigenous people who form a significant part of the population in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Prateek Joshi of the Institute for Defence and Strategic Analysis, while commenting on the protests said, “In 2014-15, when Islamabad announced the withdrawal of wheat and sulphur subsidies, protests took place. ACC's charter of demands goes beyond addressing the tax issue. Their major demands include Gilgit-Baltistan should get its share of CPEC income, it should be declared a tax free zone, power projects in the region should be controlled by Gilgit-Baltistan, and not Islamabad, subsidies that have been stopped should be restored and historical trade routes leading from Gilgit-Baltistan to Ladakh and Tajikistan should be reopened.”
On whether these protests will have any bearing on Pakistani policy, Oldmixon said, “If one hopes the protests to deliver greater autonomy/ independence from the Pakistani state, I expect they will be disappointed with the ultimate outcome. If one is simply looking for some amount of tax relief, that is more plausible but is likely to come with some counterconcessions, such as a demonstration of the desire to be more permanently integrated into Pakistan.”