1. Home
2. Front Page

PDP takes strong position to protect Art 35A in the top court: Spokesman

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 8/6/2018 3:20:10 PM

SRINAGAR, Aug 5: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday reiterated its pledge to safeguard Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on all fronts, stating that past bears testimony to the fact that the party took a strong stand in ensuring a strong and categoric legal recourse to protect Article 35A in the Supreme Court.
PDP chief spokesman Rafi Ahmad Mir, in a statement, said that when the party was part of the coalition, it left no stone unturned for the protection of Article 370 and 35A.
The official records pertaining to the matter evidently reflect that then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti directed the state’s law department to file the second counter affidavit by the end of July. However, after the fall of government on June 19, the filing of the affidavit was the constitutional responsibility of the Governor.
He added that the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti met the Governor immediately after the collapse of coalition, to share the concern of people about protecting Article 35A and the need of a strong legal recourse. He said that top lawyers of the country were engaged back then to defend the state’s special status in Supreme Court with the senior ministers of the party camping in the national capital at the time of the hearings.
He added that ahead of stitching common ground for alliance with the BJP, PDP signed the agenda of alliance in which safeguard of state’s unique identity remained a top priority and the same was admitted in the country’s top court as ground of status quo by the government of India.
“The fact of the matter remains that the PDP made every possible effort to thwart any attempt that could have put state’s special position in a comprising position. Even during her tenure as the chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti is on record to caution the prime minister on the floor of the house and later she also met the PM to deliberate on the need of protecting state’s special status,” chief spokesman said.
PDP is continuing its earnest efforts to protect Jammu and Kashmir’s special position on all fronts, remarked the PDP chief spokesman, while cautioning that any fiddling with state’s special position is fraught with the dangerous consequences and could turn the state into a veritable inferno, leaving all the peace building measures of the past in tatters. “It is high time that instead of a confrontational attitude, the central government needs to put its best foot forward and explore the ways that could make peace an inseparable feature of the state,” said Rafi Mir.