ISLAMABAD, Nov 1 (APP): Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Hussain Chaudhry said that Gilgit Baltistan (GB) would be granted status of fifth province with consensus of all political stakeholders after its election on Nov 15.
He said that the ground works related to map demarcation, monitory matters and directories preparation were almost completed.
The detailed measures to this effect were already explained by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in its earlier judgment in this regard, he added.
In a talk show program of a private news channel on Sunday, the minister said the people of GB have equal rights of citizenship. “Granting status of province to GB will bring the GB people at par with the people of other provinces of the country,” he said.
After completion of essential legislative process, he said that the government would grant GB the status of province, on the pattern of successful merging of former FATA region in KPK.
Fawad Chaudhry denied the impression about the Prime Minister’s visit to GB for election campaign and said that he was visiting there to attend the National Day celebrations of GB. “Like Bilawal Bhutto, any public office holder from any political party, including PTI can run election campaign in GB,” he clarified.
Fawad Chaudhry expressed his hope that PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq would have to regret over his controversial statement.
“Taking about anti-Pakistan narrative to the media of enemy country for analysis will serve nothing other than weakening of the state institutions and such kind of bad political traditions need to be avoided,” he criticized.
