Gilgit- Baltistan elections will be held on November 15,2020

 GB election was due in August but postponed for some reasons 

Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Legislative Assembly will be held on November 15. The President of Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi approved the summary that was sent by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The GB election was due in August but postponed after issuing the election schedule.

The GB supreme appellant court ordered to the government to hold the elections within three months on the petitions filed against the postponement of elections. The announcement of new election schedule has cleared all the doubts regarding the elections.  

The election schedule was announced after the meeting of parliamentary leaders with Army chief and DG ISI couple of days ago. They discussed the GB election and declare GB as province of Pakistan.

On September 22, parliamentary leaders had called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to discuss administrative matters of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) among other issues.

According to sources, the PML-N delegation included Shehbaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal, while the PPP’s comprised Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sherry Rehman. It was reported that the proposal to make G-B a new province was agreed upon in the meeting.

The parliamentary leaders reportedly asked the military leadership to ensure free and fair elections in GB.

Over a dozen political and religious parties, including the country's three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will contest the general elections.

There are 33 seats in the G-B Legislative Assembly, out of which three are reserved for technocrats and six for women. Elections are to be held for the remaining 24 seats. More than 700,000 people will cast their votes, of which about 45 per cent are women. This is the first time a woman has been allowed to stand for the elections from the G-B Assembly. 

On September 17, the government decided to elevate the GB as full province with all constitutional rights, including its representation in the Senate and the National Assembly, Minister Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Ali Amin Propaganda said.

The minister said that the premier would soon visit the region and make the formal announcement in this regard. He added that Gilgit-Baltistan would be given adequate representation on all constitutional bodies, including the National Assembly and the Senate.

“After consultation with all stakeholders, the federal government has decided in principle to give constitutional rights to Gilgit-Baltistan,” the minister told a delegation of journalists from G-B. “Our government has decided to deliver on the promise it made to the people there.”

                                                    Rukhsana Manzoor Deputy Editor