EFSAS comments on the new Gilgit Baltistan Reforms Order 2018
June 3, 2018
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) was highly critical of the new order. In a statement on 24 May, it stated: “In claiming to grant the people of GB their fundamental freedoms, the GB Order has clipped their right to freedom of association and expression. It has denied any Gilgit-Baltistani the right to become a chief judge of the Supreme Appellate Court or to have any say in internal security. Above all, it has disregarded people’s needs despite continual public pressure in GB to address their problems fairly and in accordance with local aspirations. The continuing imprisonment of Baba Jan and his comrades for having stood up for their fundamental rights is a sore case in point. There is nothing in the GB Order to protect others like Baba Jan in the future".
Baba Jan, a GB political activist, was sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court for protesting against the killing by the police of two disaster-affected GB residents in 2011.
