‘Institutions must have N. Area seats’

By SRIDHAR KUMARASWAMI

New Delhi, Aug. 15: An activist from the northern areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir says that India should grant reservations in its educational institutions for people from the northern areas (Gilgit-Baltistan region) since India recognises PoK as part of its territory. The activist, Mr Shafqat Inqalabi, whose presence was acknowledged by none other than J&K governor Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (retd) at a recent seminar in the capital, says that Pakistan has cruelly exploited the northern areas in every way.

"The northern areas has no university and no professional colleges. It has only 12 high schools and two regional colleges with no post-graduate facilities. Lack of education has practically closed all avenues of (Pakistani) government jobs (for people from the region), thus negating their upliftment. This has led to the demand for reservation in Indian educational institutions," Mr Inqalabi has written in an essay titled Economic exploitation of Gilgit-Baltistan, which has been published in a recent work by the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).

"India says that PoK is part of it and has even reserved seats in the J&K Assembly for those from the region. India should grant reservations in its educational institutions for youth from the region which has been brutally exploited by Pakistan," he told this newspaper.

Mr Inqalabi, who has been arrested by the Pakistani ISI twice before for speaking out against Islamabad’s policies, said that the people of the Gilgit-Baltistan region have gained nothing from the exploitation of the vast water resources and precious mineral resources of the region by Pakistan. He said the people have not even gained from the trade through the Karakoram highway that links Gilgit-Baltistan region to China.

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