“Speaker Turning Jammu Kashmir Assembly into Nawai Subah”: LoP Sharma | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma on Wednesday said that Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather’s decision to hand over the chairmanship of eight out of nine House committees to MLAs of the ruling National Conference-led alliance smacks of a move to turn the JK Assembly into the National Conference’s headquarters, Nawai Subah.

In a statement, Sunil Sharma said that the Jammu Kashmir Assembly belongs to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and that the BJP will resist any move to turn it into the fiefdom of any party.

“The decision to appoint eight MLAs of the ruling party as heads of the committees is totally unjustified and an insult to the mandate of people of JK ” he said, adding that the universally accepted principle of proportional representation has been trampled by the Speaker.

He said the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly empower the Speaker to nominate chairmen of House committees, but discretion must be exercised fairly in all decisions.

“The first-time MLAs from the ruling party have been appointed as heads of different committees, while senior legislators from the opposition have been ignored,” he said.

He said the ruling alliance, with 54 MLAs, will head 8 committees, while the BJP, with 29 MLAs, has been allotted the chairmanship of only one committee.

“Out of the eight committees allotted to the ruling alliance, five will be headed by the National Conference, which has 41 MLAs,” he said, adding that the move reflects a sinister design to turn the Jammu Kashmir Assembly into the headquarters of the ruling party.