The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan ( ur, وزارت امور کشمیر و گلگت بلتستان; abbreviated as MoKGB) is a ministry of the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories, ...

. It handles the regional affairs of

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

and

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

as both territories of

Pakistani-administered Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompass ...

do not have regular provincial status within

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

due to political circumstances revolving around the long-running

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir, Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakista ...

History

1949–1974

The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs (MKA) was first established in January 1949 following the

First Indo-Pakistani War First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, which left Kashmir divided between

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and Pakistan through a

UNSC The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...

-mandated ceasefire line. Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, former '' diwan'' of

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi f ...

and Pakistani state minister without portfolio (sic) was appointed as the minister in charge of the MKA. A sprawling office was set up in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

with a 300-man secretariat. The MKA also had directorates for public relations, refugee rehabilitation, movements and quartering, and civil supplies and coordination, which were located in the city of

Murree Murree ( Punjabi, Urdu: مری) is a mountain resort city, located in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range, within the Muree District of Punjab, Pakistan. It forms the outskirts of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, and is about ...

. In April 1949, the MKA executed the Azad Kashmir Karachi Agreement with the then President of Azad Kashmir, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan and the head of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas. The document's terms gave complete control over the areas of

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a ...

and

Baltistan Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gil ...

to the MKA. For the territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir itself, control over defence and foreign affairs was ceded to the ministry, including the responsibilities of contemporary negotiations with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

and any arrangements for the envisaged plebiscite for Kashmir. However, on the ground, the ministry had almost complete control over the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government, due to the latter's few resources and almost full dependence on Pakistan for supplies and management.

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ...

scholar Navnita C. Behera states: Australian political scientist

Christopher Snedden Christopher Snedden is an Australian political scientist and author. He has studied and published on the long-running Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. In his book, ''The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir'' (2012), he proposed ...

states: Kashmiri political analyst Ershad Mahmud states:

1974–present

In 1974, under the

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourt ...

administration, Azad Jammu and Kashmir's first constitution was drafted—known as the ''Interim Constitution of 1974''. Under this ruling, Pakistan's controlled territory in Kashmir was politically bifurcated, with the regions comprising Gilgit and Baltistan being split into a separate unit called the ''Northern Areas''. Likewise, the MKA was renamed to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (MKANA). In 2009, the Northern Areas were formally renamed to ''Gilgit-Baltistan'', and the MKANA was correspondingly renamed to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan (MoKGB).

Management divisions

* Jammu and Kashmir Refugees Rehabilitation Organization *

Northern Areas Transport Corporation Northern Areas Transport Corporation or NATCO ( ur, ) is the largest transport company in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan and Karakoram Highway, throughout the Northern Areas. Natco is providing its service from Rawalpindi to Karachi daily for las ...

* Directorate of Health Service, AJK * Directorate of Health Service, Gilgit-Baltistan * Jammu and Kashmir State Property,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

References

External links

Bibliography

* * * Federal government ministries of Pakistan {{Pakistan-gov-stub