Sajad Lone walks out of J&K Assembly after amendment motion on Article 370 disallowed

Jammu, March 4 (IANS) Jammu & Kashmir Peoples’ Conference (JKPC) president and MLA Sajad Gani Lone staged a walk out of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Tuesday after his motion for amendments regarding Article 370, police verification and alleged rigging in 1987 elections was disallowed by the Speaker.

Immediately after the question hour ended in the House, Sajad Gani Lone stood up from his seat and questioned Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather’s right to disallow his amendments regarding Article 370, a probe into the alleged rigging of the 1987 election and detentions of persons under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

Speaker Rather said he had disallowed the amendments motion under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House.

Sajad had submitted seven amendments to the Lt. Governor’s address, while only two were allowed.

In his amendments, Sajad had submitted that there was no mention of Article 370, doing away with the existing police verification system and a probe into the alleged rigging of the 1987 polls in the Lt. Governor’s address.

He said that there was no mention of the resolution passed in the J&K Assembly in its last session on the restoration of Article 370.

“We are victims of police verification, and the rules are very stringent. I am myself a victim. Nobody should be punished for what their kin have done. We cannot keep quiet on these issues,” he said.

Nizamuddin Bhat, Congress MLA, supported Sajad’s argument that police verification should be discussed and debated in the House.

“You should have kept the repeal of PSA in the Lt. Governor’s address if you had an intention”, Sajad said. The Speaker said these matters pertain to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and that the PSA cannot be repealed by the Assembly unless statehood is restored.

It must be mentioned that Sunil Kumar Sharma, BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, has said that the BJP will not allow any unconstitutional, undemocratic and anti-national activity in the J&K Assembly, which is presently in its budget session.

–IANS

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