J&K parties seek action against Chief, Law Secretaries over statehood resolution

Srinagar: J&K parties, excluding BJP, urged Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather to act against the chief secretary and law secretary for questioning and intervening in the contents and language of a resolution of statehood brought by chief minister Omar Abdullah and adopted by the assembly.

PDP MLA Waheed Para moved a motion of privilege and submitted it before the Speaker against chief secretary Atal Dhulloo and law secretary Achal Sethi. The two senior bureaucrats, in two separate official communiques to the Speaker, opposed Abdullah's statehood resolution which mentioned a reference to autonomy resolution passed by the same assembly in 2000.

Congress legislator Irfan Hafiz Lone also stated that the House should take serious note of this issue and ascertain how an officer could give his opinion to the assembly on his own. Mubarakh Gul of National Conference, who was presiding over the House in the absence of the Speaker, said that the "opinion of the officers is not binding on the House and we won't allow desecration of the sanctity of this house." PC MLA Sajad Lone said if the ruling dispensation had spine, they should take action against the bureaucrats.


BJP MLAs maintained the statehood resolution brought by the CM was "unconstitutional and illegal".