Watch: Food shortages trigger fresh protests in PoK, main highway blocked

Poor governance in Pakistan has snowballed into anti-Pakistan and pro-India protests in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Gilgit Baltistan regions.

Videos from these Pakistani-held regions show that protests have continued unabated since December 2022. In the latest protests, people blocked highways and burnt tyres. The protests, which are spreading to different parts of the region, have now been reported from Bagh city in PoK where demonstrators blocked the GT Road.

With a shortage of wheat and rising prices in the country, people in the Pakistan occupied regions are even demanding that Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) should be unified with India. Kashmiri activist Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza says that people from all sections of the society have come together to demand a merger with India.

The situation for Pakistan has taken a u-turn which has put Islamabad in an embarrassing situation.

After having taken over portions of the princely state of J&K by force in 1947 soon after the Partition of India, Pakistan kept the communities underdeveloped and without democratic representation. Owing to discrimination, and with no rights over their land and natural resources, the people are holding regular demonstrations.

Mirza said that in Gilgit-Baltistan massive public meetings have been organised in sub-zero temperatures.

The bankrupt government of Shehbaz Sharif is on an overdrive asking for funds from international agencies like World Bank and IMF, Western countries, Gulf nations as well as China.