Context: According to a Pakistani media report, Pakistan has decided to elevate the status of Gilgit-Baltistan to that of a full-fledged province with all constitutional rights.

• Gilgit-Baltistan is one of the disputed territories of India.

Background

• Gilgit-Baltistan has functioned as a “provincial autonomous region” since 2009.
• It is controlled by Pakistan.
• Besides, in a recent order, the Pakistan Supreme Court also allowed the amendment to the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 to conduct the general elections in the region.

Key Points

• It is also said that the work on the Moqpondass Special Economic Zone would begin under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
• The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• The CPEC is a collection of infrastructure and other projects under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013.

India’s objections

• India has said the Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it.
• India has clearly conveyed to Pakistan that the entire union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of the country by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession.
• India expresses strong opposition to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor as it passes through the disputed territory (Gilgit-Baltistan) and hence violates India’s sovereignty.

How Pakistan took over it?

• The British sold it, along with the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Dogra ruler of Jammu, Gulab Singh, after defeating the Sikh army in 1846, but retained controlled over the area through a lease extracted from the Maharaja.
• This lease was last renewed in 1935. In 1947, a British army officer of the rank of Colonel imprisoned Maharaja Hari Singh’s governor in the region, and handed over the area for accession to Pakistan.

About Gilgit-Baltistan

• Gilgit-Baltistan is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947, and between India and China from somewhat later.
• Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the greater Kashmir region, which is the subject of a long-running conflict between Pakistan and India.
• The territory shares a border with “Pakistan administered Kashmir” (Called Azad Kashmir by Pakistan) and union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory) and Ladakh separated from it by the Line of Control.
• Pakistan is a federation that comprises four provinces: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan and three territories: Islamabad Capital Territory, Gilgit–Baltistan and Azad Kashmir (according to Pakistan).

Strategic importance of Gilgit- Baltistan to India

• Located in the northern Pakistan. It borders China in the North, Afghanistan in the west, Tajikistan in the north west and Kashmir in the south east.
• It shares a geographical boundary with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and India considers it as part of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as a separate from PoK.
• It has a regional Assembly and an elected Chief Minister.
• The significance of Gilgit and Baltistan is evident to anyone who looks at the map even cursorily. Without control of Gilgit, Gwadar has no meaning to China. 
• For China, the $46 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a means to increasing its strategic presence in Pakistan and CPEC is part of a grand plan to enhancing influence through rail, road and pipeline connectivity to Central and West Asia while linking Gwadar to Xinjiang through Gilgit. Besides, Xinjiang is only 2500 km from the Arabian coast but is 4500 km from the Pacific coast.
• Gilgit-Baltistan is home to five of the “eight-thousanders” and to more than fifty peaks above 7,000 metres (23,000 ft). 
• Three of the world’s longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in Gilgit-Baltistan namely Batura Glacier, Biafo Glacier and Hispar Glacier

Also Read: https://abhipedia.abhimanu.com/Article/IAS/MTYwMDYz/Strategic-Importance-of-Gilgit-Baltistan---Recent-developments-Security-Issues-IAS