Leaders of Awami Action Committee present demands for ending protests in Gilgit Baltistan

These demands from the leaders of AAC have come to light when the area has been witnessing several protests against the provincial administration.

A leader from the AAC while participating in an ongoing protest on Friday said: "We have presented certain demands in front of the administration. Out of the demands presented by us, four come under the jurisdiction of the provincial government and the rest come under the central government. However, even after two sessions of discussion, no response has been received from the government's side."

It must be noted here that a news piece published in Dawn dated February 2 claims that, amid continuous unrest in Gilgit-Baltistan for almost a month over a wheat price hike, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Thursday agreed to continue providing subsidies to the people of the region by slashing the budgets of some major ministries because of strict IMF conditions on subsidies.

The leaders of the AAC while speaking on the demands said that "our first demand from the administration is that they give us a guarantee that they will not revoke the wheat subsidy in the future".

In the past, lakhs of these subsidised bags of wheat have been smuggled to Afghanistan directly from Islamabad, ultimately resulting in a shortage of wheat. Hence, the AAC leaders have demanded that the quota of fifteen lakh bags of wheat that has been approved for GB, must be given to the people of GB anyhow.

The leaders have also demanded the reinstatement of the health card, a subsidised health benefits card that was given to the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and was revoked from GB some time back.

The leaders said that "the condition of Sehat Card (Health Card) holders is very unstable; hence, we demand that the card be restored in GB if it is being given to the people of POK. And we will not end our protests until the health card is reinstated".

The leaders also demanded that the Finance Act of Pakistan must be revoked, because of this act, the revenue generated from the intensive use of natural resources of GB is not being given to the people of GB. (ANI)