Independence Day of Gilgit-Baltistan Celebrated

By Ghulam Rehman

ISLAMABAD, November 1, 2010: Students belong to Gilgit-Baltistan in National University of Modern Languages (NUML) celebrated the 63rd independence day of the newly established province of Pakistan here on Monday.

The people of Gilgit-Baltistan got freedom from the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir on November 1, 1947 through their own resources, they established a new state of their own, Raja Shah Rais Khan became the President while Mirza Hassan Khan the Commander-in-Chief of the Gilgit scouts. The region had run its own government for 15 days and then offered Pakistan to take over the administration and to give the inhabitants citizenship and other human rights.

The ceremony started with the welcome speech of Mr. Naveed Iqbal, a student of Mass Communication, he welcomed all the students to join the ceremony and conducted cake cutting ceremony with the slogan of “Gilgit-Baltistan zindabad, Pakistan Payindabad”.

“The people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been deprived by constitutional rights since the independence in 1947” said Mr. Naveed, in his speech.

“The brave people of the region fought the Dogras and got freedom but unfortunately still the government of Pakistan has not given us constitutional Rights” he added.

Speaking to the ceremony Mr.Salah Uddin said “We have no representatives in the parliament and senate of Pakistan, despite the sacrifices of thousands of the brave soldiers in war 1965, 1972 and 1999 Kargil war, in which Hawaldar Lalik Jan Saheed was awarded Nishan-e-Haider”.

Mr Iftikhar another student of MBA expresses his view as “We have not even right to access the supreme court of Pakistan to get justice”.

After the cake cutting ceremony and speeches the entertainment session started with the traditional music and dance in the open, hundreds of students belong to different parts of the country participated in the traditional dance.

Students from Federal, Punjab and other parts of the country showed their interest and appreciated the organizers, they also suggested conducting the ceremony in national level with the support of the government,

“The government should make arrangements to celebrate Gilgit-Baltistan day as most of the people of Pakistan have no knowledge about the revolutionary history of Gilgit-Baltistan” said Mr. Saleem Faroqi, a student of MA English, belong from Multan.

The organizers were included Anwar Khan, Mr. Sami Ullah, Amin Ullah, Sher Zaman and Mohammad Sami.