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This book is a preliminary work on ‘Northern Areas’ of Pakistan which focuses on geo-strategic significance of the area, and feelings of resentment among local people who have been living with many constitutional, legal, administrative and political constraints and are, nonetheless, lagging far behind the mainstream society of Pakistan. In this mostly ‘primarily-sourced’ research work the authors have endeavored to identify the crisis in the Northern Areas (if any) and gauge its gravity, and have undertook a prospective study of the crisis in the regional and global context.
Northern Areas of Pakistan, which border India, China and Afghanistan, are of strategic concern and interest to Pakistan, China, India and the US. The river waters which sustain agriculture in Pakistan flow from this area. The Korakaram Highway from the Xinjiang province of China constructed with Chinese help in the 1960s and the 1970s and inaugurated in 1978 is of tremendous strategic significance for regional trade. At the same time America is also interested in the oil and gas resources of Central Asian States and analysts believe that America can try to block possible energy flow towards China and South Asia.
Constitutionally, under a Legal Framework Order, Northern Areas are directly ruled from Islamabad through the Northern Areas Legislative Council. The story of the Northern Areas is a story of deprived people who are struggling for their rights. To declare the Northern Areas as fifth province of the Pakistan is the long standing demand of the people. Political parties are also demanding that if not possible to make it the fifth province under the United Nations Resolutions on Kashmir then government, at least, should give Northern Areas the same constitutional status as being enjoyed by Pakistani Kashmir. Some nationalist parties, nonetheless, are struggling for an independent state and they are also catching attraction of the people because of complex legal and constitutional situation of the Northern Areas. We are thankful to Ethnic Minority Groups Development Research Institute of Research Development Center (EMGDRI) of the Development Research Center of State Council, China for their special assistance for this research work. We are also grateful to all those political leaders and activists, journalists and scholars of the Northern Areas, and government and private organizations, without whose help we would not have accomplished this task.
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