Mohammad Usman Bhatti

Publication

Beyond the Facade of Azadi: POK’s Struggle for Political Autonomy

The territories of the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), known together as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), hold immense geostrategic significance while remaining at the heart of a deeply contested political discourse within the broader Kashmir issue. Despite ‘AJK’s ostensible branding as ‘Azad’ or ‘free’ and GB’s glorification as Pakistan’s ‘crown jewel’, these characterizations obscure a reality of constrained autonomy, overshadowed by Islamabad’s overarching federal control and the formidable grip of Pakistan’s security apparatus.

A Problem in the Making: Deepening wheat crisis in Gilgit-Baltistan and federal government’s cold response

Research Assistants, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Mohd Usman Bhatti and Mr Muneeb Yousuf’s article ‘A Problem in the Making: Deepening Wheat Crisis in Gilgit-Baltistan and federal government's cold response’ has been published in Greater Kashmir, on 18 July 2023.

From the beginning of year of 2023, Pakistan in general and GB in particular is grappling with wheat crisis. Remarkably, while the current Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government has taken some steps towards this direction in the country, however, grievances of the people of GB with respect to shortage and soaring prices of wheat has been deliberately put on a back-burner, thus adding to miseries of common people, say Dr Bhatti and Mr Yousuf.

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