Mufti can’t bring Central laws to JK directly: NC

Opposition National Conference Thursday said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed cannot bring central laws to the State without consent from State legislature and accused PDP of having covert understanding with its alliance partner BJP to divest Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.

NC General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, NC Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, NC Central Zone President Ali Mohammad Dar and NC District President Budgam Manzoor Ahmed Wani while speaking, here today said NC had demanded ration distribution according to the 2011 census and the party had left no stone unturned to highlight this demand.

“We have always represented the aspirations and grievances of the people and we will continue to strive for their best interests. The political interests and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be compromised with,” they said.

NC General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said Mufti’s remarks about by-passing the State Legislature to implement National Food Safety Act (NFSA) in the State have created panic and is being seen as the first brazen self-admission by PDP of being hand-in-glove with the BJP in a plan to divest the State of its Special Status.

He said PDP-BJP government continues to alienate the youth of the State as there is an enormous political vacuum as the government has effectively sidelined all core political issues.

“The political narrative is conspicuously missing and that can have far-reaching adverse implications on the prospects of safety and stability in J&K. All political promises made by the PDP stand ridiculed and abandoned by them – be those promises about the return of power projects, promises about rehabilitating the flood victims, promises about revocation of AFSPA or the promise of going for an alleged ‘Battle of Ideas’ with the separatist leadership – most of whom have been persecuted, incarcerated and politically ostracized by the PDP-BJP Government”, Sagar said.

NC Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani lashed out at PDP-BJP government for trying to undermine the constitutional sanctity of the State Legislative Assembly by volunteering to surrender its role in scrutinizing the extension of Central Acts into the State through a Mirror J&K Bill proposed in the State Legislature – as has been the practice in the past.

“This is a big statement with tragic, alarming connotations. Mufti has a long track-record of playing pivotal roles in eroding Article 370 as a part of various dispensations and parties and this statement is in line with that Anti-J&K conviction he has always nurtured within his heart,” he said.

Wani said NC won’t allow the PDP-BJP nexus to sideline or disrespect the constitutional mandate of the Legislative Assembly at any cost.

He said PDP is alienating the youth and wasting all dividends of peace that were realized after intensive political efforts to bring normalcy in the State.

“Not only is this Government pushing our youth back towards the path of militancy but it is also abandoning all pro-youth initiatives taken by the Omar Abdullah-led Government.  The Return and Rehabilitation Policy that was fully supported by Omar and NC has been effectively abandoned by Mufti. Today even 80 year old senior-citizens who manage to reach their homes on this side of the LoC through established unconventional routes are harassed, arrested and put behind bars like terrorists. Is this the ‘healing touch’ of Mehbooba Mufti and Mufti Sayeed? A high number of PSAs have been slapped on the youth by the PDP-BJP Government – completely belittling its own slogan of ‘Battle of Ideas’. This Government is a big farce that has come into being through an evil, opportunistic nexus between the PDP and the BJP”.