Pakistan SC Decision: Another Wake Up Call For New Delhi

The 2019 decision of seven Judges of the Pakistan Supreme Court in Civil Aviation Authority v Supreme Appellate Court Gilgit-Baltistan purportedly on the "historical and constitutional issue involving the status, authority and powers of Gilgit-Baltistan" is yet another instance of how Pakistan chooses to distort the Kashmir narrative for political expediency. The Court listed the repeated declarations by New Delhi of its commitment to a free and impartial plebiscite to decide whether the princely state of J&K is to accede to India or Pakistan. The Court candidly acknowledged that while "Azad J&K" and Gilgit-Baltistan are considered to be a part of the disputed J&K, "it has always remained completely under Pakistan's administrative control." The Court took the view that it has "not hesitated in the past to give legal recognition to the aspirations of people who have unhesitatingly, enthusiastically cast their lot with Pakistan right from the beginning" and that it would "not hesitate now to take the matter further" to provide "judicial imprimatur" and "permanence" to the Order annexed to the judgment, which is to the effect that Pakistan "intends to give Gilgit-Baltistan the status of a provisional Province, subject to the decision of the Plebiscite to be conducted under the UN Resolutions" and "to provide for greater empowerment so as to bring Gilgit-Baltistan at par with other provinces and to initiate necessary legislative, executive and judicial reforms for the aforesaid purposes". As regards the view taken by the Court that the accession of J&K to India was "contrary to the expectations of the population", there is simply no evidence to substantiate that the population of J&K – spread over Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and the frontier illaqas - would have opted for Pakistan.