PTI govt finalises draft law for declaring Gilgit-Baltistan a province

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led federal government has finalised the draft amendments for a series of legislation including the draft law for declaring Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) a province, ARY News reported on Friday.

While taking practical steps for bringing legal reforms in different sections, the federal government finalised draft laws for elections, accountability process, province status to Gilgit-Baltistan (FB) and criminal laws.

It was learnt that 20 amendments have been finalised for bringing reforms in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regulations.

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700 amendments were prepared for criminal law besides starting legal work on electoral reforms in accordance with the PTI’s manifesto.

Moreover, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem prepared a draft law in light of the international regulations and the United Nations (UN) resolutions to grant province status to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region.

The draft laws have been presented before Prime Minister Imran Khan by the concerned ministry.

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It is pertinent to mention here that the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly had demanded an interim province status for the region from Pakistan’s federal government.

While passing a resolution by the regional legislature, an appropriate representation for the Gilgit Baltistan region had been demanded in Pakistan’s National Assembly, Senate and other federal institutions.

The assembly had also demanded in its resolution an interim province status for the region and amendments in Pakistan’s constitution to provide constitutional cover to it.

READ: GOVT DECIDES GRANTING PROVINCIAL STATUS TO GILGIT-BALTISTAN: PM

In the regional election held in November last year, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had won the required number of seats in the assembly to form its government in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced that the government will immediately make progress on giving provincial status to the Gilgit-Baltistan region and the sense of deprivation of GB people will be removed by declaring it a province.