The
Northern Areas (
Urdu ????? ????? ???,
Shumali Ilaqe Jat) is officially referred to by the government of
Pakistan as the
Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA). The
Northern Areas is the northernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It borders
Afghanistan to the north,
China to the northeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the south, and the Indian-administered state of
Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. The
Northern Areas, which became a single administrative unit in 1970, was formed from the amalgamation of the
Gilgit Agency, the
Baltistan District of the Ladakh Wazarat, and the states of
Hunza and
Nagar. With its administrative center at the town of
Gilgit, the
Northern Areas covers an area of 72,971 km² (28,174 mi²) and has an estimated population approaching 1,000,000. According to Pakistan's constitution, the Northern Areas is not part of Pakistan, and its inhabitants have never had any representation in Pakistan's parliament. As far as the United Nations is concerned, the entire area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the
Northern Areas, remains a disputed territory still awaiting resolution of the long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan. In 1950, the government of India, ignoring a United Nations resolution on Kashmir, abandoned its pledge to hold a plebiscite and, in 1956, unilaterally annexed that portion of the former state that was under its control, thereby making that portion an integral part of India. The government of Pakistan, on the other hand, continues to this day to regard the entire area of the former state as "territory in dispute" to be resolved by a plebiscite to be held at some future date, in order to determine the entire area's accession to either India or Pakistan. While continuing to call for that plebiscite, however, the government of Pakistan has, so far, been unwilling to entertain the idea of a third option for the plebiscite, i.e., a choice of independence for the entire former state. Today, the
Northern Areas is still referred to by India as part of "Pakistan-occupied Kashmir" (POK) and, conversely, the present Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir is referred to by Pakistan as "Indian-occupied Kashmir."
Before partition Maharaja Hari Singh expanded his rule to the Northern areas which suggests that it was not originally part of Kashmir. After the partition of India in 1947, Jammu and Kashmir, in its entirety, remained an independent state, as a result of Maharaja Hari Singh's decision to refrain from joining either India or Pakistan. The Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir to the north and west of the cease-fire line, or the Line of Control as it later came to be called, were divided into the Northern Areas (72,971 km²) in the north and the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Kashmir (13,297 km²) in the south. The name "Northern Areas" was first used by the United Nations, to refer to the northern areas of Kashmir. The United Nations never intended the name to refer to the northern areas of Pakistan. As far as the United Nations is concerned, the entire area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Northern Areas, remains a disputed territory, still awaiting resolution of the long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan. A small part of the Northern Areas, the trans-Karakoram tract, was provisionally ceded by Pakistan to the People's Republic of China in 1963. Presently in the Northern Areas, there are at least two political movements—the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) and the Gilgit Baltistan United Movement (GBUM)—that are calling for the establishment of a fully autonomous state.
The Northern Areas is administratively divided into two divisions which, in turn, are divided into seven districts[1]--the two Baltistan districts of Skardu and Ghanche, and the five Gilgit districts of Gilgit, Ghizer, Diamer, Astore, and Hunza-Nagar. The main political centres are the towns of Gilgit and Skardu.
The Northern Areas borders the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, China's Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast, the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and southeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the south, and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to the west.
