GB: Pakistan Questioned About Dubious China Deal

Pakistan has inconspicuously planned a new deal with China to hand over Gilgit-Baltistan for 50 years. The reason is the country’s troubled economic conditions and tensions with the US. However, the caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza has denied but on the other hand,  the Northern Gilgit-Baltistan province and the Chinese province of Gansu signed a memorandum of understanding on December 9, 2023, for the transfer of high-mountain agriculture technology and machinery to the mountainous region that will help local farmers increase their production of various crops.  

Gansu province is the centre of the Belt and Road Initiative and Gilgit-Baltistan is the gateway of CPEC. On the pretext of improving communication between these two regions, the Chinese government will help the government of Gilgit-Baltistan for the development of agriculture, food security, and human and livestock development.”

It is pertinent to mention that GB is not officially a part of Pakistan but forms part of the portion of disputed Kashmir that is administered by Pakistan. The region is Pakistan’s only land link to China and is at the heart of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure development plan. CPEC started in 2013, with $62 billion spent to date. But now debt-ridden Pakistan is casting around for loans to pay older loans. Whoever will give — and on whichever terms — is to be heartily embraced. The ‘unbreakable bonds’ of the Pak-China friendship are under stress.

According to IMF data, China holds roughly $30bn of Pakistan’s total external debt of $126bn. This is thrice its IMF debt ($7.8bn) and exceeds its borrowings from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank combined. So why is mighty China awaiting the green signal from the American-led IMF before releasing some relief? Shouldn’t it at least reschedule Pakistan’s debt? Or, better, wipe it off?

The original state of J&K which acceded to India in October 1947 comprised 2,22,236 sq km. But today India has only 1,06,566 sq km of the original state of J&K. Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) is 72,935 sq km. In 1963, Pakistan illegally leased Shaksgam Valley, an Indian Territory in PoJK to China in exchange for military and nuclear technology and to get its support in the UN and other international forums. Pakistan knew that its occupation is not backed by any legal document and it had only UN card in its favour. However, there is no such dispute according to an instrument of accession of 1947 between India and Maharaja Hari Singh. Pakistan avails this as an opportunity to team up with China to claim that J&K is disputed.

In the past few months, over 30 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) have been inked between China and Pakistan across various sectors including mineral exploration, processing, and extraction, climate protection, industrial production, commerce, communication, transport, connectivity, food security, media, space cooperation, urban development, capacity building, and vaccine development.

Pakistan is too miserably poor, shady & corrupt to freely gift two islands in Sindh as well as the Gilgit-Baltistan to China. At best, it is bartering/selling Sindh islands precisely to cash on them with the ulterior motive to bring the pestering and wily dragon, deliberately at India’s doorstep.

Pakistan has already made tons of Chinese money by selling PoJK property, legally belonging to India, especially in the Gilgit-Baltistan zone. But China and Pakistan are playing with fire. How can Pakistan sell a property in dispute to China and how can China accept land from Pakistan, knowing fully well that India has a legal claim over it? India has vehemently protested this fraudulent and shady deal, loud and clear, before the world.