ELECTIONS AMID the craggy splendour of Gilgit-Baltistan are usually of interest only to its residents-if them. The region at the northern tip of Pakistan is home to five of the 14 mountains in the world that exceed 8,000 metres, but contains only 1% of Pakistan's population. The pragmatic locals tend to vote for the party that runs the national government. Moreover, the local assembly has limited powers, since the region is not a province, but merely a territory, being part of Kashmir, which India and Pakistan both claim and which they divided by war in 1947.
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