ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan announced granting the provisional-provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday as he arrived in the area to attend its 73rd Independence Day celebrations.
“One of the reasons for me coming to Gilgit-Baltistan is to announce that we have decided to grant Gilgit-Baltistan the provisional provincial status,” he said. “We have taken this decision keeping in mind the UN Security Council’s resolutions,” added the prime minister.
PM Imran said that he could not announce or talk about the development packages for Gilgit-Baltistan since it would be a violation of the stated procedures as elections were about to take place in the area.
“However, I will tell you that it is our government’s foremost policy to uplift Pakistan’s poor that amount to 25% of the population and the country’s backward areas,” he said.
The prime minister said that one of the many reasons Gilgit-Baltistan remained backwards was because it was “cut off” from the rest of Pakistan.
“Insha’Allah you will see in the coming days, our development plans will go there [backward areas],” he said.