Electioneering in Gilgit-Baltistan centers on these slogans and promises: should you (s)elect us to power, we would make G-B like Karachi; if (s)elected, we would make Lahore of G-B; should you afford us yet another opportunity, we would change your fate the same way we did for the rest of the country; we would freely guard free and fair elections against any potential rigging —for we are the only tried and tested saviours of the country and its people.

Of all the instruments employed to gauge politics, truth, power and democracy in Pakistan, electioneering offers a relatively accurate account of what power wielders are actually up to. Gilgit-Baltistan is no exception. Now that G-B goes to polls today, one must make sense of the stated and inferred axis of power - from all the trumpets, clichés and campaign theaters that preceded and will succeed it. And yes, from their governance record in the rest of the country.

The promises of replicating Lahore or Karachi in G-B - regardless of its distinct topography, demography and political status -........

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