HRCP calls for granting 5th province status to NAs
By Hina Kiyani

ISLAMABAD—General Secretary Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Syed Iqbal Haider has said that Northern Areas should be awarded the status of 5 th province to give representation to the constituency and urged the government to determine the constitution status.
"Despite announcing the alliance with Pakistan, People have no constitution status and even were deprived of representatives and Assembly and it is alarming situation that Pakistani map displayed the Northern areas as disputed," he said while addressing a press conference to give briefing on the survey conducted by Human Rights Commission in Northern Areas.
He said that people had lot of problems in Northern areas and they wanted the status of 5th province otherwise they demanded of the government to give the status of Azad Jamun and Kashmir for public representation.
He said that after a long time Pakistan had not accepted them as part of Pakistan and Northern areas in the map of Pakistan were shown as disputed and he termed it the attempt on the part of government to undermine the case of Kashmir in the international community.
He further regretted that judiciary was not independent as judges were being appointed by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs rather by Ministry of Law and section officer of the ministry could transfer the judge any time. He urged the government to make the judiciary independent.
He said that a legislative council was working but it had not constituted any law to address the problems of the people so far and it was very alarming situation. He added that education and health sectors were the victims of the apathy of the government and no trained staff in both sectors was appointed.