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| Lawyers protest "gender bias" bill, court arrest | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 17: The timing of the Women's Reservation Bill at the Centre and the controversial Permanent Resident (Disqualification) Certificate Bill in the state coincides. While the former is beacon for women, the other is the glaring example of bias against them.
The disqualification bill seeks the cancellation of permanent resident rights of domicile women marrying outside Jammu and Kashmir.
As PCC president Saifudin Soz has already dissociated his party from the bill, lawyers, who today took out a rally under the banner of Bar Association Jammu (BAJ), courted arrested to lodge their protest against the bill.
Terming the controversial bill as the beginning of gender bias in the state, they gathered in the court complext at Janipura in the morning and held a strong anti-government demonstration.
From Janipura, they marched towards the civil secretariate in a rally amidst the raising of anti-government and anti-bill slogans.
They were, however, stopped at Shalimar crossing and not allowed to lay a siege around state assembly in the secretariate complex by a posse of policemen who were deployed outside the civil secretariate and the nearby Shalimar crossing.
When some of them tried to cross the barricades, they were canecharged by the cops as a result of which they sustained minor injuries.
Over 300 lawyers courted arrest at Shalimar when police did not allow them to move towards the secretariate. They were made to board police vehicles to be taken to the district police lines across the Tawi bridge near Asia Hotel.
However, while one of the buses, carrying them, was crossing the bridge, they forced its driver to apply brakes in the middle of it. As the bus came to a screeching halt, they immediately jumped out and laid a dharna there as a result of which the vehicular traffic was blocked.
They protested on the bridge for about half-an-hour after which they lifted their dharna and again boarded the bus for the police lines.
All the lawyers, who courted arrested, were released in the evening. They vowed to carry forward their fight against the bill till it was withdrawan.
The bill was moved March 8 by a PDP member. It strips women of their right to own and inherit immovable property, get government jobs, voting and other privileges if they marry non-state subjects.
Meanwhile, Samiti convenor Brig (retd) Suchet Singh extended full support to the lawyers and said the government was trying to suppress the voice of the people.
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