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| Jan Commission report on Shopian rape-murder being tabled on Friday | | Aslam may head privilege panel against Baig | | AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Aug 5: Determined to proceed against the PDP enfant terrible Muzaffar Hussain Baig in the matter of what it calls “planned character assassination” of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the ruling coalition has begun pressing hard on its motion of the breach of privilege in Legislative Assembly. Senior Congress legislator, Choudhry Mohammad Aslam, is likely to replace National Conference MLA and Chief Whip, Mubarak Gul, as Chairman of Assembly’s Privilege Committee which would conduct proceedings against the former Deputy Chief Minister and propose action. This all amid explosive Bills from private members on human rights and “draconian laws” as also tabling of the Jan Commission report on August 7th .
Returning to work after eight-day-long vacation on Friday next, Legislative Assembly is expected to continue with the pandemonium witnessed on all three days of its Business in the beginning of the current Budget Session. After a direct hit on Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone, on day one of the session by PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, party’s number three in the top hierarchy and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig had triggered a volcanic eruption on July 28th by claiming that Mr Omar Abdullah’s name was among 192 persons accused/suspected of their involvement in the infamous Srinagar Sex Scandal of 2006.
Even as the federal investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), did not own the “shame list” produced by Baig and the Governor, consequently, advised Omar Abdullah to continue as head of the government, proceedings in the House remained disrupted till it shut for a long holiday amid surfacing of a privilege motion moved against Baig by twelve of the coalition legislators, including nine Ministers.
Early Times has learned from well-placed political sources that Speaker would be reconstituting Assembly’s Privilege Committee on Thursday. Since Chairman of the committee, Mubarak Gul, has been lately appointed as Advisor to Chief Minister and granted the status of a Cabinet Minister in the Order of Precedence, Congress party’s senior most MLA and former Speaker, Choudhry Mohammad Aslam, is likely to head the privilege panel, comprising nine members from different political parties. Two of its members are likely to be replaced for their induction into the Council of Ministers last month.
Informed sources said that Baig’s adventurism had not only neutralized a wave of disillusionment and despondency among the ruling coalition constituents but also increased in-house pressure on Chief Minister to be “proactive” and “more assertive”. According to these sources, all the 12 Ministers and MLAs, who have moved the motion, have turned bellicose and made it clear on their leader that his “unilateral gestures of reconciliation” with the Opposition would not work. They, according to sources, have taken exception to one of the Chief Minister’s recent statements in which he has implicitly offered truce with the PDP.
With all the members, including Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Sagar, insisting on “suitable action” against Baig, Speaker is widely expected to assign the motion to the Privilege Committee which would propose how the Presiding Officer should establish authority of the House to protect the constitutional privileges of its members. Speaker has already given indications that he could proceed against Mr Baig for his “contempt of the House” irrespective of the stand of the twelve members who have shot off the motion. As the PDP chief has implicitly threatened that such a move could necessitate calling of all Sex Scam records to the House as also a detailed debate on this issue, Ms Mufti and her team are believed to remain as belligerent as they were in the beginning of the session.
Ironically for PDP, mayhem on the Omar-Baig clash would take away an opportunity of cornering the Omar Abdullah government on the rape-cum-murder of two young women in Shopian on May 29th last. Sources revealed to Early Times that Chief Minister would lay on the table of the House copy of the Jan Commission report on the Shopian tragedy in the thick of the proceedings after Question Hour and three Calling Attention Motions on August 7th.
A walkout or martial action in the wake of disruption by the Opposition could also take away PDP’s advantage of assailing the government on human rights and amendment to what it has been calling as “draconian laws”. Private members Bills coming up for discussion on Friday include the PDP MLA Syed Basharat Bukhari’s Bill seeking radical amendment to Public Safety Act (PSA) of 1978 besides two Bills from Choudhry Zulfikar Ali (PDP) and Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid (Independent) seeking amendment to Jammu & Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act 1997.
One more private member’s Bill, seeking amendment to Transfer of Property Act 1977, has all the potential of PDP taking revenge from NC on a controversially passed legislation four years ago. This has been interestingly moved not by an opposition member but by NC’s Mir Saifullah. Given the two parties’ divergent stand as witnessed in the Assembly four years ago, this Bill can draw the first wedge between NC and Congress.
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