Delimitation panel reaches Srinagar, PDP to stay away from proceedings, Five-member delegation from NC to meet Commission

Press Briefing by Ms. Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
  • PDP writes to Delimitation Commission, says the party will stay away from proceedings, The commission lacks constitutional and legal mandate and its very existence and objectives have left the people of Jammu and Kashmir with many questions: Hanjura.
  • A five-member delegation of NC to meet Delimitation Commission in J&K, The commission has allotted 20 minutes to each party to put forth their views about the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir, the leader said

The five-member Delimitation panel arrived in Srinagar on Tuesday as part of its four-day visit to JK.

The panel led by (Retd) Justice Ranjana Desai arrived in Srinagar this afternoon.

The panel is on a four-day visit to J&K and it will meet different political parties and District Election Officers of 20 districts.

The panel soon after arriving in Srinagar, straightly drove to Hotel Lalit here where it will meet different political groups today.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday said it will not meet the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission as the Centre did not initiate any steps to ease the lives of the people and the outcome of the delimitation exercise was “widely believed” to be “pre-planned”.

“Our party has decided to stay away from this process and not be a part of some exercise, the outcome which is widely believed to be pre-planned and which may further hurt the interests of our people,” PDP general secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura said in a letter to the commission.

Addressed to Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, who leads the commission, Hanjura reiterated in the letter the PDP’s stand that the constitutional changes with regard to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 were made “illegally” and “unconstitutionally”.

Hanjura said the party believes the commission lacks constitutional and legal mandate and its very existence and objectives have left the people of Jammu and Kashmir with many questions.

The Reorganization Act is a product of the same process, we are of the considered opinion that the Delimitation Commission lacks constitutional and legal mandate in the first place and its very existence and objectives have left every ordinary resident of J&K with many questions, he said.

There are apprehensions that the delimitation exercise is part of the overall process of political disempowerment of the people of J&K that the government of India has embarked on. At the very core of these apprehensions is the process through which the commission has been constituted and the fact that while the delimitation process across the country has been put on hold till 2026, J&K has been made an exception,” he added.

Meanwhile, A five-member delegation of the National Conference (NC) will meet the Delimitation Commission, arriving on a four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, a party leader said.

The party has nominated Abdul Raheem Rather, Mohammad Shafi Uri, Mian Altaf Ahmad, Nasir Aslam Wani, and Sakina Ittoo to meet the commission at a hotel here, he said.

They will represent the party and put forward their viewpoints and suggestions before the commission, he added.

The commission has allotted 20 minutes to each party to put forth their views about the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir, the leader said.

The NC has been given a time slot of 5.10 pm to 5.30 pm, he added.

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