was the name of most of the area of northern
Kashmir which formed a
De Facto dependency of
Pakistan from 1947 to 1970, which was then merged into
Northern Areas . The Agency was administered directly from
Islamabad separately from the neighbouring state of
Azad Kashmir and the
Princely States of
Hunza and
Nagar . The area of the Agency comprised the traditional region of
Gilgit and most of the region of
Baltistan . The Agency also bordered the
Sinkiang region of
China to the northeast, the Indian state of
Jammu And Kashmir to the south, and the
North-West Frontier Province to the west. Both India and Pakistan recognise the regions of Gilgit and Baltistan as disputed and technically part of the divided State of Jammu & Kashmir.
The chief towns of the Agency were Gilgit and
Skardu with the small town of Ghyari also holding significance for
Shia Muslims as the site of a mosque built by Sayyid Ali Hamadani, a
Fourteenth Century Persian who brought
Islam to the region.
The regions of Gilgit and Baltistan were formerly principalities. The actual name of the 'Northern Areas' is .
Baltistan is the Pakistani controlled part of Ladakh province now incorporated into the Northern Areas. The rulers of Gilgit (also known as
Dardistan ) were styled Raas ruling from the town of
Gilgit . The rulers of Baltistan were styled with the
Tibet an title of rGyal-po, having been founded as a western Tibetan kingdom in the
Thirteenth Century . The state of Baltistan included the area of
Kargil in Indian
Jammu And Kashmir . The two states, together with their neighbours Hunza and Nagar, became vassals of the state of
Jammu And Kashmir in the middle of the
Nineteenth Century but maintained considerable autonomy. Gilgit Agency became part of Gilgit province or Wazarat and later leased to
British Raj by Maharaja of Jammu in 1889.
The local rulers continued to appear at the Kashmir
Durbar s until 1947. The events of Partition and the subsequent invasion of the
Kashmir by Pakistani tribals led to most of the Agency becoming part of
Pakistan Administered Kashmir , but the Kargil area remained with India. The Agency was not absorbed into any of the provinces of
West Pakistan but continued to be ruled by Political Agents of the federal government. A small part of the Agency (the
Trans-Karakoram Tract ) was transferred by treaty in 1963 to
China with the proviso that the settlement was subject to the final solution of the Kashmir dispute. The dissolution of the province of West Pakistan in 1970 was accompanied by the name of the Agency being changed to the
Northern Areas . This was followed in 1974 by the incorporation of the states of
Hunza and
Nagar and independent valleys of
Darel-Tangir , which had been de facto dependencies of Pakistan. The entire Northern Areas region is claimed by India as part of the
Jammu & Kashmir state.
