By Jamil Nagri

Copyright dawn

GILGIT: Hundreds of Chinese nationals, foreign tourists and students remained stranded on the second day on Tuesday at Sost as protesters blocked Khunjerab Pass Immigration Office’s entry and exit points on the Pakistan-China border.

Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals, students, foreign tourists couldn’t travel to China through Khunjerab Pass on the second day as the GB protesters did not allow travel at KKH between the two countries.

The stranded Chinese nationals and foreign tourists protested with local police for not arranging their departure to China. Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals protested and exchanged hot words with officials.

The GB people and traders have been staging a protest sit-in and blocking the Karakoram Highway for the last 51 days against collection of Sales Tax, Income Tax and Excise Tax by the federal government from the GB people. They say that collection of any tax from the GB people by the federal government is illegal as they have no representation in Pakistan’s parliament and they are not part of Pakistan according to Constitution of Pakistan.

Protesters block KKH at Sost till acceptance of their demands, suspending travel between Pakistan and China through Khunjerab Pass

GB Assembly member from treasury bench advocate Amjad Hussain, who is also PPP president of GB chapter, told GB Assembly that talks with the federal government are under way to settle the issue.

Advocate Amjad Hussain is also the member of a committee formed by the GB chief minister to hold talks with the federal government committee to resolve the issue.

In first meeting between representatives of the GB committee and the federal government committee, the federal government had admitted that collection of Sales Tax, Income Tax and Excise Tax from GB people and traders is illegal.

Advocate Amjad Hussain told the GB Assembly the issue will be resolved soon.

Opposition members of GB Assembly Javed Ali Manwa, Raja Zakaria and Syed Sohail Abbas criticised the GB government and federal government for prolonging the issue and not resolving it immediately.

Protesters at the sit-in said that instead of solving the genuine issues, the GB government is planning to start a crackdown against them and warned the government to be ready for dire consequences if it tried to crack down against the protesters.

The protest sit-in on the KKH is being staged on the call of all traders’ bodies of Gilgit-Baltistan. Gulsher Khan, one of the protest sit-in organisers, said the federal and GB governments are not serious in resolving the issue.

He said protesters have been demanding their rights under the Constitution of Pakistan and laws. He said Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) could not collect federal taxes from GB people and its traders as the people of the region have no representation in Pakistan’s parliament and therefore the federal government could not collect taxes from the people of the region.

He said over 200 consignments imported from China have been stuck up at the Sost Dry Port for the last 10 months and because of this, traders of GB have been facing losses of billions of rupees.

Another organiser of the protest, Ebad Nagari, said that policies of FBR have made thousands of GB people jobless.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2025