Northern Areas, Pakistan
| Northern Areas | |
 Northern Areas of Pakistan | |
| Regional Capital | Gilgit |
| Languages | Urdu Pashto Shina Balti Wakhi Burushaski |
| Area | 72,496 km² |
| Population | 1,500,000 (estimated) |
| Revenue & NFC - National revenue share - Received share | % (contribution) % (from federal gov't) |
| Time zone | PST, UTC +5 |
| Number of Districts | 6 |
| Number of Towns | 2 |
| Administration | Federal Minister of States and Frontier Regions |
| Northern Areas Official Website | |
The Northern Areas or Gilgit-Baltistan is the northernmost region of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The name 'Balawaristan' is given to the area by a regional nationalist party (Balawaristan National Front) centred in Gilgit. The area west of the Indus, including contemporary Gilgit and Hunza, was known as the Gilgit Agency until October, 1947. India does not recognise the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir as part of Pakistan and refers to these regions as "Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)".
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Geography
The Northern Areas border the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, the Xinjiang territory of China to the northeast, the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast, the region of Azad Kashmir to the southeast and the North-West Frontier Province to the west.
The region is home to some of the world's highest mountain ranges — the main ranges are the Karakoram and the western Himalayas. The Pamir mountains are to the north, and the Hindu Kush lies to the west. Amongst the highest mountains are K2 and Nanga Parbat, one of the most feared mountains in the world.
- See Also : List of mountains in Pakistan
Climate
Demographics
The population consists of many diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious groups due in part to the many isolated valleys separated by some of the world's highest mountains.
Urdu is the lingua franca of the region, understood by most inhabitants. The Shina language (with several dialects) is the language of 40% of the population, spoken mainly in Gilgit, throughout Diamer, and some parts of Ghizer. The Balti language with a similar accent, is spoken or understood by most of the population of Baltistan. Minor languages spoken in the area include Wakhi spoken in upper Hunza and some villages in Ghizer, while Khowar is the major language of Ghizer. Burushaski is an isolated language spoken in Hunza, Nagir, Yasin (where Khowar is also spoken), some parts of Gilgit and some villages of Punyal. Another interesting language is Domaaki, spoken by the musician clans of the region. Small pockets of Pashto speakers are found along the border with the North West Frontier Province and Afghanistan.
History
The region comprised many small states, ruled by hereditary Mirs in Hunza and Raas in Gilgit. Some parts of the region were invaded by Kashmir and nominally the states were governed as a part of Kashmir for many years. Locally, this association with Kashmir is disputed by some who regard themselves as being distinct from Kashmiris. There is also some support for the region to become a province of Pakistan, separately from Kashmiri regions. The region's lack of representation in the Pakistani Parliament has placed it outside the mainstream politics of the country and is a major cause of frustration to the local population.
Unlike Azad Kashmir, the Northern Areas are governed directly by Pakistan as a de facto federal dependency. A small part of the Northern Areas (the Trans-Karakoram Tract) was ceded to China by Pakistan in 1963 with the proviso that the settlement was subject to the final solution of the Kashmir dispute. The cession was not recognised by India.
The Kashmir dispute
Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state with a Muslim majority ruled by a Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh until 1947. In 1947, when the Indian subcontinent achieved independence from United Kingdom, Hari Singh could not decide whether to join India or Pakistan. Soon after the independence, Pathan tribesman from Pakistan's North Western Frontier backed by the Pakistani Army, invaded the state because of the rumours that the Hindu Maharaja was going to cede a Muslim Kashmir to the Union of India. With no defence forces and a detoriating human rights condition, the Maharaja was compelled to ask India for military assistance. India's then Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten, favored the state's accession to the Republic of India, to which the Maharaja agreed. After the Instrument of Accession was signed, the National Conference's Shiekh Abdullah became the head of the Kashmir State government. By January 1948, Indian troops landed in the region and claimed the territory as a part of the Union of India. Pakistan, immediately contested the accession and invaded Kashmir. After months of intense fighting, both the nations agreed on a cease-fire, separating the region into two: Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. In 1961, China invaded India and occupied the north-eastern region of the country known as Aksai Chin, which India continues to claim as its part.
Ever since, a bitter enmity has been developed between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been to war twice over Kashmir (1947-1949, 1965), and clashed there again during the Kargil Conflict of 1999. The region remains one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world. The de facto situation, as of 2005, is that Pakistan controls just under half, China a small portion, and India just over half the state.
See Also: Indo-Pakistani Wars, Azad Kashmir
Subdivisions
The Northern Areas comprise six districts in two regions: the two Baltistan districts of Skardu and Ganche, and the four Gilgit districts of Diamer, Ghizer, Gilgit (the union of Dardistan and Hunza states) and Astore (Gilgit Wazarat - a former tribal territory). The main political centres are the towns of Gilgit and Skardu.
Origins of the people
The southern route of the ancient Silk Road passes through the area, travelled by merchants from many far-off places who may have stopped here and inter-married with the locals. It had long been speculated that the relatively fair-skinned and, in places, light-haired people of the area were descendants of the Greeks who, beginning with the soldiers of Alexander the Great, and continuing in the Greco-Buddhist period, settled in the region (see Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek). However, recent DNA analysis has failed to find any evidence of Greek ancestry. It is now thought that much of the population is descended from various aboriginal peoples as well as the descendants of Indo-Iranian tribes and the Tocharian-speaking Yuezhi people of the Tarim basin, who ruled the region during the Kushan era.
Personalities
- Lalak Jan
- Nazir Sabir
- Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai
- Dr. Faquir Muhammad Hunzai
- Mir Muhammad Jamal Khan
- F M Khan
- Mir of Hunza
- Farman Ali
- Izhar Hunzai
See also
- NLI - the Northern Light Infantry
- Kargil War
- Karakoram
- Karakoram Highway
- List of mountains in Pakistan
- Indus River
External links
- Official
- 2005 Earthquake
- Conservancy
- Mountain Areas Conservancy Project
- Snow Leopard Conservancy
- Dawn.com article entitled 'In search of identity'
- History & Photographs
- Monitor.net article entitled 'Northern Pakistan's Karakoram & Hindu Kush Mountains'
- Geocities.com Gilgit Map
- Daily Times article entitled 'Not 'Mir of Hunza
- Photos by Waqas Usman
- Blogspot article entitled 'Tibetan script makes a comeback in Pakistan'
- News Articles
- Dawn.com article entitled 'And when the tourists come'
- BBC article entitled 'Pakistan's Northern Areas dilemma'
- Paknews.com article entitled 'Pakistan's Northern Areas'
| Provincial and Territorial Capitals in Pakistan | 
|
|---|---|
| Karachi—(Sindh) | Lahore—(Punjab) | Peshawar—(North-West Frontier Province) | Quetta—(Balochistan) | |
| Northern Areas | FATA | Muzaffarabad—(Azad Kashmir) | |
| Islamabad—(Federal Capital) | |
