Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called on the people of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) to grant his party a decisive mandate in the upcoming elections scheduled for June 7. During his campaign rally in Ghizer, Bilawal emphasized the importance of a clear mandate to represent GB’s interests effectively in Islamabad.
He stressed that before any new province is created, the voice of Gilgit must be acknowledged at the federal level. Bilawal highlighted the need for a PPP-led government in GB, led by a loyal party chief minister, to guarantee land ownership rights for the local population. He insisted that without a majority, the PPP would be unable to pass legislation crucial for securing these rights.
Bilawal warned that rival parties, including the PML-N, would block any PPP efforts to enact ownership laws. He underscored the urgency of forming a PPP government to enable residents to gain rightful ownership of cultivable land, which is currently subject to division and lacks proper allocation.
The June 7 elections will mark the fourth Legislative Assembly vote in Gilgit-Baltistan since the 2009 Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, introduced by then-President Asif Ali Zardari, which aimed to provide the region with self-governance.
Gilgit-Baltistan currently has 963,034 registered voters, comprising 506,097 males and 456,937 females, reflecting a 29% increase since 2020. Notably, the gender gap in voter registration has narrowed from 8% to 4% over this period. Despite this population growth and voter increase, no new delimitation has been conducted since 1994, partly due to the confidentiality of the region’s census data.
