Cloud over clemency issue for Afzal in J&K Assembly

The resolution was moved by independent MLA  Engineer Rashid last week. The seven (working) day long session will begin on September 26. Officials in the Assembly secretariat confirmed having received the mercy plea on Guru but said they are not in position to say whether it falls within the ambit of assembly rules or not.

“We have not fully read the resolution yet as we are still in the process of receiving all the private members resolutions. The last date for receiving such resolutions is September 10. Only after that all the resolutions will be scrutinised to see whether those are within the Assembly rules,” said Assembly speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone.

Even if the resolution falls within the ambit of rules it has to undergo the ballot process. “We have only one day (September 28) for the private members’ resolutions in this session. We can take up only seven resolutions on that day. Till now we have already received 10 and going by the earlier practice, the number can reach to dozens till the last day. We have to necessarily conduct the ballot process to select the seven required resolutions out of the dozens,” the speaker said.

He, however, added that the whole process will be conducted in full media glare in a free, fair and transparent manner some days before the start of the session.
The main opposition party, PDP, has already announced to support Guru related resolution in the assembly.

The BJP said it will  oppose it. However the ruling parties, Congress and National Conference have not yet decided anything about it. However, sources said their party would oppose the resolution. National Conference (NC) will be also having no option but to oppose the resolution if at all it comes up for discussion and voting in assembly.