GB Assembly, National Assembly adopt Black Day resolutions

The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly and the National Assembly have adopted resolutions marking Black Day, Dawn reported, in sittings held to observe the annual date linked to the 1947 events in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the Dawn report, both houses passed the resolutions. The report did not carry the text of either resolution, the names of the members who moved them, or the number of votes cast in either house. It also did not say whether the resolutions were adopted unanimously or after debate.

Black Day is observed each year on 27 October, the date in 1947 when Indian troops were deployed to Jammu and Kashmir. The date is marked in Pakistan and in Azad Kashmir with rallies, seminars and statements from political parties and government figures.

Resolutions of this kind are adopted by the federal and provincial legislatures on national and commemorative occasions and record the sense of the house rather than enacting law. The Dawn report gave no indication of what, if anything, either assembly planned to do next on the basis of the resolutions it passed.

The National Assembly and the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly have in past years adopted similar resolutions on the same date, alongside statements issued by the federal government. Skardu Times could not independently confirm the wording of the resolutions adopted this year. The report was filed in the early hours of 28 October and carried no further details, and no other outlet reviewed by this desk carried the story.

Dawn's account was based on its own reporting from the two houses; the details above are attributed to it because they could not be verified separately.