'Gilgit-Baltistan people deprived of their basic rights'

People of the Gilgit Baltistan, currently under illegal occupation of Pakistan, have been "deprived" of their basic constitutional rights, the US lawmakers were told this week ahead of the historic elections in the country.
"Millions of Pakistanis will cast their votes day after tomorrow on the 11th of May to choose their congress members. However, on this day, the residents of the UN-declared disputed region of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is my birth place, will have no chance to choose their national representatives, president or the prime minister," Senge Sering, president of the Washington-based Institute for Gilgit Baltistan, said.
"Ruled by Pakistan like a colony since 1948, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan continue to live without their basic constitutional rights, including the right to choose their political future," Gilgit-Baltistan born Sering said at an event held at the US Congress on the 19th Commemoration of Vietnam Human Rights Day.

"I appreciate Secretary (of State, John) Kerry for stating that all governments have a responsibility to protect the universal human rights but the fact remains that the residents of Gilgit-Baltistan are a country-less people and both India, which claims the region, and Pakistan, which physically controls it, have refused to grant the constitutional rights to them," Sering alleged.