JOIN USFarooq Abdullah calls all-party meeting in Srinagar on March 11
With the political process in freeze in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah has called an All Party Meeting (APM) at his Jammu residence on March 11 to discuss the prevailing situation in the union territory (UT).
Reports said invitation has been extended to leaders of all major political parties to attend the meeting to be held at 3 pm on Saturday. Most of the senior leaders from political parties, including PDP, Congress, CPM and others are expected to participate in the meeting.
Insiders said delay in holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and other issues, including imposition of property tax will be discussed in the meeting.
For the last two years most of the meetings presided over by Abdullah were being held under the banner of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD). The PAGD is an alliance of NC, PDP, CPI, CPM and Awami National Conference and was formed in October 2020 by Kashmir centric leaders with the pledge of perseverance and steadfastness towards restoration of the special status of J&K revoked by the Center in August 2019.
However, NC insiders said, this time the meeting has not been called under the banner of the PAGD. “Some political parties or leaders, especially those from the Jammu region, had reservations to attend the meeting under the banner of the APM. Due to this reason, the PAGD name was skipped,” they said.
Under Central rule since June 2018, there have been no signs of early Assembly polls in J&K which is without an elected government since June 2018 when the BJP broke its alliance with PDP, forcing the chief minister of the PDP-BJP alliance Mehbooba Mufti to resign.
After brief central rule, the BJP government at the Centre abrogated Article 370 and reduced the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs of Ladakh and J&K.