| 80 MLAs sworn in; Mufti, Azad missing | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Jan 20: Amidst sporadic scenes of uproar and laughter, 80 members of the eleventh legislative assembly were today administered oath by Pro-Tem Speaker Choudhary Mohammad Aslam.
Former Chief Ministers Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad were among those six members who were not present for the oath ceremony.
Newly-elected MLAs take oath
The Chief Minister Mr. Omar Abdullah was the first to take oath, followed by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Tara Chand.
They were followed by Ministers Mr. Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Minister for School Education and Public Enterprises Department, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats, Mian Altaf Ahmad, Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, Mr. Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister for Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control, Mr. Nawang Rigzin Jora, Tourism and Culture, Mr. Surjit Singh Slathia, Minister for Industries & Commerce Labour and Employment and Mr. Sham Lal Sharma, Health, Horticulture and Floriculture.
Former Chief Minster, Dr. Farooq Abdullah was next to take oath, followed by Mrs. Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the PDP Legislature Party and Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta, leader of BJP Legislature Party. Prominent among others who took oath were former ministers Mr. Harshdev Singh of Panthers Party, Hakim Mohammad Yasin of PDF, Mr. Ghulam Hassan Mir of DPN, Ch. Mohammad Ramzan of NC, Mr. Mubarak Ahmad Gul and legislators, Mr. M. Y. Tarigami of CPI(M) and Mr. Ashok Khajuria of BJP.
Former Chief Ministers- Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP and Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress, former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig of PDP, Iftikhar Hussain of PDP and Ashwani Kumar Sharma (independent) were not present during the ceremony.
The J&K legislative assembly has a strength of 89 members with 87 elected and two nominated. Secretary of the assembly M Ramzan said that a total of 80 members took oath today and the remaining will be administered oath at a later date.
The partywise strength in the house is- NC 27, PDP 21, INC 17, BJP 11, JKNPP 3, CPI(M) one, J&K Democratic Party Nationalist one, Jammu Kashmir Peoples Democratic Front one and independents four.
Abdullah, who had won from two assembly constituencies of Hazratabal and Sonawar in the recent seven-phased assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, later resigned from Sonawar segment.
The other members who made and subscribed the oath/affirmation today are: Sardar Rafiq Hussain Khan, Mir Saifullah, Mr. Kafil-ur-Rehman, Mr. Abdul Gani Malik, Mr. Qamar Ali Akhoon, Miss Sakina Itoo, Mr. Abdul Rehman Bhat (Veeri), Mr. Mohammad Akbar Lone, Mr. Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Mr. Yash Paul Kundal, Mr. Javaid Mustaffa Mir, Syed Bashir Ahmed Shah, Mr. Raman Bhalla, Mr. Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, Mr. Abdul Gaffar Sofi, Mr. Abdul Majid Wani, Mr. Mohammad Khalil Band, Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Khan, Mr. Tsetan Namgyal, Mr. Jugal Kishore, Mr. Jagdish Raj Sapolia, Mr. Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo, Mr. Balwant Singh Mankotia, Mr. Mohammad Sartaj Madni, Mr. Manohar Lal Sharma, Mr. Rachpal Singh, Mr. Nazir Ahmed Khan (Gurezi), Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Mr. Zahoor Ahmed Mir, Mr. Rafi Ahmad Mir, Mr. Radhay Sham Sharma, Mtr. Shamima Firdous, Mr. Ashok Kumar, Mr. Nizzam-ud-Din Bhat, Mr. Baldev Raj, Mr. Javaid Ahmad Dar, Mr. Vikar Rasool, Syed Basharat Ahmad Bukhari, Mr. Lal Chand, Mr. Mohammad Ashraf Ganie, Mr. Krishan Chander, Dr. Shafi Ahmad Wani, Mr. Durga Dass, Peer Afaq Ahmad, Mr. Shabir Ahmed Khan, Mr. Abdul Haq Khan, Prof. Gharu Ram Bhagat, Mr. Nasir Aslam Wani, Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, Mr. Sham Lal Choudhary, Mr. Mohammad Irfan Shah, Mr. Abdul Razaq Wagay, Mr. Sukh Nandan Kumar, Mr. Feroz Ahmad Khan, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, Mr. Bharat Bhushan, Mr. Aijaz Ahmed Jan, Mr. Zulfikar Ali, Mr. Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Mr. Charanjit Singh.
The five newly-elected legislators, who could not take oath today are former Chief Ministers Mr. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, Mr. Ifthikhar Hussain Ansari of PDP and Ashwani Kumar Sharma, while one seat has fallen vacant due to resign of Dr. Farooq Abdullah from the Hazratbal constituency. He had won from two constituencies of Sonawar and Hazratbal. |
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