Kashmir vs PoJK: Contrasts in Growth and Neglect Across the LoC

In the contested Kashmir region, a piercing distinction in development trajectories has emerged between the two sides of the Line of Control. 

While Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), including Gilgit-Baltistan continues to languish under the weight of underdevelopment and administrative apathy, Jammu and Kashmir has seen a wave of infrastructure investment and institutional reform.

The Indian way sets a new standard

On one side of the LoC, projects such as the Zojila Tunnel, intended to ensure all-weather connectivity between Srinagar and Leh, came to fruition. The expansion of Kargil Airport showed the effort being taken to deepen economic integration. Meanwhile, renewable energy initiatives in the Suru Valley have been commended for embedding the practicality of sustainability and strategic self-sufficiency in a sensitive area. The Indian government’s revocation of Article 370 in 2019 also recalibrated the region’s legal and economic landscape. 

Srinagar is now being reimagined. Once hemmed in by its own storied past, the city is now leaning into the future. The Smart City Project has overhauled civic infrastructure and layered new digital efficiencies atop centuries-old beauty. Roads are smarter, traffic is better managed, and the Jhelum’s riverbanks are seeing life return. 

In 2024, close to two million tourists arrived to witness this renewal.

The developments must not be mistaken, or misrepresented, as cosmetic rebranding. It is generational. A new wave of talent is taking root. 

Institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology’s Jammu satellite in Awantipora and NIT Srinagar are channelling resources into local human capital. The outcomes are visible in the careers of people like Zahoor Ahmad Mir, a renewable energy researcher of national acclaim, and Arif Khan, the Olympian skier from Baramulla, who carries his homeland’s story onto the world stage.

Pakistan stumbles, Kashmiris suffer

By comparison, what lies across the LoC offers a stark picture of negligence and short-sightedness. In Muzaffarabad and Skardu, power failures stretch for 18 hours at a time. Clean water is scarce. Basic infrastructure is collapsing under the weight of abandonment. While Islamabad seeks to present the narrative of a game-changing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, those living in PoJK see only the outward flow of their resources, not the inward flow of benefits. 

Real progress is so slow and rare, even brother-in-arms China is frustrated with Islamabad.

Projects like the Diamer-Bhasha Dam have forcibly uprooted local communities with no trace of any meaningful compensation. The rich mineral wealth of Gilgit-Baltistan is steadily stripped with little regard for environmental safeguards or revenue sharing. The promise of prosperity is repeatedly replaced by silence and exploitation.

The political climate has become as fragile as the region’s roads. In 2018, the 13th Constitutional Amendment stripped PoJK’s population of legal recourse by criminalising dissent. Civic space continues to shrink. Government employees have taken to the streets in Muzaffarabad, demanding overdue wages and basic public services, only to be met with stonewalling from federal authorities.

This sense of disenfranchisement is entrenched. Youth in Gilgit-Baltistan and PoJK are left with few choices. Schools lack funding. Universities are sparse. Industries are underdeveloped. Most young people are either compelled to emigrate or fall through the cracks. The difference in opportunities available to a young Kashmiri in Baramulla and one in Skardu is not marginal—it is structural.

Pakistan’s political strategy in PoJK appears firmly rooted in securitisation. Investment in military installations outpaces that in schools or hospitals. The region is managed with a defence-first mindset, where economic or social empowerment is treated as an afterthought. Islamabad’s approach mirrors a colonial outpost rather than a province deserving of constitutional parity.

The youth, denied avenues of empowerment, are often caught in a vicious cycle. Some drift towards radical networks, others leave in search of opportunity abroad, and many simply languish. India’s model, however flawed, attempts integration. Pakistan’s model entrenches alienation. This is not a contest state competence, but alas, there is no contest at all.