Pakistan may declare Gilgit-Baltistan its fifth province

In a move that may raise concerns in India, Pakistan is planning to declare the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region also known as Northern Areas as its fifth province.

Pakistan's minister for inter-provincial coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada told Geo TV that a committee headed by advisor of foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz had proposed giving the status of a province to Gilgit-Baltistan.

"The committee recommended that Gilgit-Baltistan should be made a province of Pakistan," Pirzada said on Wednesday.

He also said that a constitutional amendment would be made to change the status of the region, through which the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes.

The four provinces that are presently under the constitution are Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Gilgit-Baltistan shares a geographical boundary with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and India considers it as part of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as separate from PoK.

The $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passes through this region, and reports said Pakistan was considering elevating the constitutional status of the region in a bid to provide legal cover to the CPEC.

Reports said China's concerns about the unsettled status of Gilgit-Baltistan prompted Pakistan to consider changing its status.

According to an earlier report in Dawn newspaper, Pakistan was mulling to elevate the constitutional status of the region in a bid to provide legal cover to the CPEC.

The move could signal a historic shift in the country's position on the future of the wider Kashmir region, the paper had quoted experts as saying.