Rock art and petroglyphs

There are more than 50,000 pieces of rock art (petroglyph

Petroglyph

Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...

s) and inscriptions all along the Karakoram Highway

Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway is the highest paved international road in the world, but at its peak at the China-Pakistan border it is only paved on the Chinese side. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of as confirmed by both...

 in Gilgit-Baltistan, concentrated at ten major sites between Hunza

Hunza (princely state)

Hunza was a princely state in the northernmost part of the Northern Areas of Pakistan until 1974. The state was also known as Kanjut. The state bordered the Gilgit Agency to the south, the former princely state of Nagar to the east, China, to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest. The state...

 and Shatial. The carvings were left by various invaders, traders, and pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s who passed along the trade route, as well as by locals. The earliest date back to between 5000 and 1000 BCE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

, showing single animals, triangular men and hunting scenes in which the animals are larger than the hunters. These carvings

Stone carving

Stone carving is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work....

 were pecked into the rock with stone tools and are covered with a thick patina

Patina

Patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals ; a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure...

 that proves their age.
The ethnologist Karl Jettmar has pieced together the history of the area from various inscriptions and recorded his findings in Rock Carvings and Inscriptions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan and the later released Between Gandhara and the Silk Roads - Rock Carvings Along the Karakoram Highway. Many of these carvings and inscriptions will be inundated and/or destroyed when the planned Basha-Diamir dam is built and the Karakoram Highway widened.

Before the independence of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and the partition of India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 in 1947, Maharaja

Maharaja

Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...

 Hari Singh

Hari Singh

Maharaja Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.He was married four times...

 extended his rule to Gilgit

Gilgit Agency

The Gilgit Agency was a political unit of British India, which administered the northern half of the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Gilgit Agency was created in 1877 and was overseen by a political agent of the Governor-General of British India. The seat of the agent was Srinagar...

 and Baltistan

Baltistan

Baltistan , also known as بلتیول བལིུལ་ in the Balti language, is a region in northern Pakistan which forms Gilgit-Baltistan, bordering the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. In addition, a part of Baltistan also falls into Jammu and Kashmir of India. It is situated in the Karakoram mountains...

. After the partition, Jammu and Kashmir, in its entirety, remained an independent state. The Pakistani parts of Kashmir

Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north west, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China to the north and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, to the east.A...

 to the north and west of the cease-fire line established at the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

The India-Pakistan War of 1947-48, sometimes known as the First Kashmir War, was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four wars fought between the two newly independent nations...

, or the Line of Control

Line of Control

The term Line of Control refers to the military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which, to this day, does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto border...

 as it later came to be called, were divided into the Northern Areas (72,971 km²) in the north and the Pakistani state of Azad Kashmir

Azad Kashmir

Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...

 (13,297 km²) in the south. The name "Northern Areas" was first used by the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 to refer to the northern areas of Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

. A small part of the Northern Areas, the Shaksgam tract

Trans-Karakoram Tract

The Trans-Karakoram Tract is an area of nearly along both sides of the Shaksgam River, is entirely administered by the People's Republic of China as a part of Kargilik County and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in the Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, but claimed by Pakistan...

, was provisionally ceded by Pakistan to the People's Republic of China in 1963.

Gilgit-Baltistan, which was most recently known as the Northern Areas, presently consists of seven districts, has a population approaching one million, has an area of approximately 28000 square miles (72,519.7 km²), and shares borders with Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, and India. According to the Pakistani newspaper Daily Times, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan were liberated from the Dogra

Dogra

The Dogras are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group in South Asia. Being a diversified group, the Dogras include both Savarnas such as Brahmins, Rajputs and Non-savarnas. The Dogras also incluide merchant castes such as Mahajans...

 regime with the aid of the Pakistani army on 1 November 1947. The newspaper further states that while the area was independent for less than a month, they specifically requested the aid of the Pakistani government due to a lack of administrative infrastructure, and were thus incorporated into Pakistan upon the request of local residents.

The local Northern Light Infantry

Northern Light Infantry

The Northern Light Infantry is a Light Infantry Regiment of the Pakistan Army. Headquartered in Gilgit, the capital of Northern Areas, Pakistan, it is the main force protecting the strategically important northern areas of Pakistan. The majority of this regiment's personnel come from native...

 is the army unit that was believed to have assisted and possibly participated in the 1999 Kargil conflict

Kargil War

The Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...

. More than 500 soldiers were believed to have been killed and buried in the Northern Areas in that action. Lalak Jan

Lalak Jan

Havaldar Lalak Jan Shaahed was born in Yasin, in the Ghizer District, of the Northern Areas of Pakistan...

, an Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim(Nizari) soldier from Yasin Valley

Yasin Valley

The Yasin Valley, Tehsil Yasin or Babaye-i-Yasen or Worshigum is a high mountain valley in the Hindu Kush mountains, in the northwest region of Gilgit in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Yasin is separated from the Ishkoman Valley by a high mountain pass...

, was awarded Pakistan's most prestigious medal, the Nishan-e-Haider

Nishan-e-Haider

Nishan-e-Haider or Nishan-e-Hyder is the highest military decoration given by Pakistan . It was established in 1957 after Pakistan became a Republic, however, it was instituted retrospectively from Independence in 1947...

, for his courageous actions during the Kargil conflict.

Autonomous status and present-day Gilgit-Baltistan

On 29 August 2009, the Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009, was passed by the Pakistani cabinet and later signed by the President of Pakistan

President of Pakistan

The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...

. The order granted self-rule to the people of the former Northern Areas, now renamed Gilgit-Baltistan, by creating, among other things, an elected legislative assembly. There has been criticism and opposition to this move in Pakistan, India, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement—while rejecting the new package—demanded that an independent and autonomous legislative assembly for Gilgit-Baltistan should be formed with the installation of local authoritative government as per the UNCIP resolutions, where the people of Gilgit-Baltistan will elect their president and the prime minister.

In early September 2009, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 signed an agreement with the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 for a mega energy project in Gilgit-Baltistan which includes the construction of a 7,000-megawatt dam at Bunji in the Astore District

Astore District

Astore is one of the six districts of the Gilgit Baltistan. The district contains the Astore Valley and is bounded to the west by Diamer District , to the north by Gilgit District, to the east by Skardu District and to the south by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Neelum District of Azad Kashmir...

. This also resulted in protest from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, although Indian concerns were immediately rejected by Pakistan, which claimed that the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 has no locus standi in the matter.

On 29 September 2009, the Pakistani Prime Minister, while addressing a huge gathering in Gilgit-Baltistan, announced a multi-billion rupee development package aimed at the socio-economic uplifting of people in the area. Development projects will include the areas of education, health, agriculture, tourism and the basic needs of life.
The Prime Minister further went on to say:

"You are getting your identity today. It is your right and has been your demand, and today we are fulfilling it."