After Opposition uproar, House Committee on Rules to meet again on Feb 11

By: Mubashir Aalam Wani

Srinagar, Feb 04: The Legislative Assembly’s committee on Rules is likely to finalize its recommendations on changes, if any, in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House on February 11, sources disclosed.

Sources said that the panel met today and held detailed discussions over changes in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House. The committee, according to sources, decided to hold another meeting on February 11 where it could finalize its recommendations.

Sources disclosed that some members of the panel have expressed reservations over the draft proposal submitted by the Legislative Assembly, saying its adoption and approval by the Assembly would send a wrong signal among the masses. They suggested that the Speaker should make informal adjustments in the Rules as necessary to ensure the smooth conduct of proceedings in the House.

Citing the proposed modifications in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the J&K Assembly, Peoples Conference and Peoples Democratic Party accused the National Conference of endorsing the August 5, 2019 (abrogation of J&K’s special status) changes.

Peoples Conference president Sajad Gani Lone said, “Endorsement of the draft proposal prepared by the Assembly secretariat regarding Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House will be the most explicit and unforgivable ratification of August 5, 2019 changes.”

He added, “It will effectively end once and for all any scope for legal challenge to the August 5 changes in the future. While we dreamt of an unambiguous resolution by the new assembly rejecting August 5, 2019, and that becoming a reference point in any future legal challenge—now we have a shocker.”

He said the same Assembly is being used to bury any such chances of legal challenges in the future. “The present assembly, reflecting the will of the people of J&K, will now be remembered as the endorser, not the rejector, of August 5, 2019,” he added.

PDP MLA Waheed Para said the modifications in the J&K Assembly Rules endorse the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019. “The modified J&K Assembly business rules mark a shift from Article 370, effectively endorsing the constitutional changes of August 5, 2019. A clear acknowledgment of the new status quo,” Para wrote on X—(KNO)