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| Justice (Retd.) Sagheer's Working Group report | | Who actually played cruel hoax on people of J&K? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
ET REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 9: Relying solely on resource material provided by administrative channels of state government especially the law department, working group report on centre-state relations was prepared in a huff and without taking into account the historical perspective of precarious political situation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Moreover, report is more a compilation of memorandums, letters, selective reports and written requests, which the members of the group had submitted to the chairman of the group Justice Syed Sagheer Ahmed during the deliberations and marathon meetings of the group. Experts maintain that report has failed to address Jammu and Kashmir issue in its actual legal perspective and hence, is a completely confused document.
They assert that report has neither suggested a way out nor explained the methodology for addressing the issues presently confronting people of Jammu and Kashmir. Irony is that half-truth about recommendations of the report was trumpeted by National Conference (NC) led coalition government as its victory for the reason that Sagheer had incorporated word "Autonomy" in the report.
Early Times has decided to take up the cause and make the actual contents of legally flawed report public. Being a public document, Jammu and Kashmir government was expected to make the report public on its own but it preferred silence to allowing the intellectuals and academicians to debate the report in open.
Not only the state government but discreet silence of centre further compounds the confusion lending credence to theory that it was another experiment of New Delhi, which miserably failed but not before leaving traces of its four year long existence.
Tasked with revisiting Jammu and Kashmir constitution and coming up recommendations for addressing the centre-state power distribution afresh, Justice Sagheer worked on the report and if the Secretary to the group Ajit Kumar is to be believed; on Chairman's instructions, it was he who wrote the so called controversial report. Due to prevailing security scenario in Kashmir valley, report may have become inconsequential but is yet to become a dead letter.
However, with centre silently sitting over and state calling for RTI applications for getting access to this report, recommendations and ultimate fate of this group needs not to be detailed herein. But those were closely associated with this crucial working group confirmed to early times that the group remained defunct for more than two years. They confirmed that after its last inconclusive meeting on September 3, 2007; Chairman actually never sought convening of another meeting.
Group members vehemently say that Sagheer had pledged another meeting of the group before the finalization of the report. But he went into total retirement in Luckhnow, his home place. It is now learnt from reliable official sources that even during the meetings of the working group and thereafter, when he was supposedly preparing the report, Justice Sagheer relied totally upon the source material provided by law department and other administrative channels of Jammu and Kashmir government.
Officials of law department informed early times that no effort was made by Justice Sagheer to utilize services of well-known constitutional experts whose interpretation of state constitution is acknowledged as an authority. Former Chief Justice of India Justice (Retd.) Adarsh Sein Anand is one of them. No doubt, his commentary has been extensively used in the report but he was never physically consulted for his advice.
Pointing towards certain specific incidents quoted in the report with regard to review of relationship between New Delhi and Srinagar, sources disclosed that since the chairman preferred to seek resource material for preparing the report from the state law department, it was fed with selective material.
Interestingly, former Principal Secretary to law department Akhtar Hussain Kochak who retired an year ago, would as and when asked about Justice (Retd.) Sagheer talk of his ailing health. However, Kochak would always pledge another meeting of the group. Even the Jammu and Kashmir government would at times float news stories in the leading dailies of the retired Justice being averse to convening meeting of the working group since the situation in Pakistan was not conducive.
They would emphasize that chairman of group has to prepare a report for addressing constitutional including those in relation to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), for which peaceful atmosphere in Pakistan is must. However, the chairman has rebutted all this talk in his report and said that he had no mandate to discuss issues related to other side of line of control. Half of what was fed to media about the working group was blatant lie.
Reports have clearly outlined the fact that no one including respective Chief Ministers exactly knew about what Justice (Retd.) Syed Sagheer Ahmed was doing. Sources confirmed that Sagheer had lost contact both with Prime Minister's office and the office of Union ministry of home affairs. The neglect did irk the retired judge but he preferred silence over complain, asserted the sources.
They further said that the chairman would always talk of consensus eluding the meetings of the group but never desisted from calling meeting of the group. However, they maintain that after the last meeting on September 3, 2007; Justice (Retd.) Sagheer returned to Luckhnow and remained unwell for some time.
They add that by March 2008, he had fully recovered yet he preferred keeping the meetings of the group inconclusive. Such was the hysteria surrounding the group that none would accept that Justice (Retd.) Sagheer was either finalizing the report or not interested in convening another round of meeting of members of the group.
However, they stressed that the report is retired Judge's work and Ajit Kumar has only drafted it. "Chairman has signed the report. There should be no confusion over this," said an official of law department. Whatever the reality, the fact remains that working group report on centre-state relations is long dead, has already become thing of past and the only thing which is awaited is its burial ceremony.
Fifth working group was set-up for the implementation of decisions concerning the establishment of five working groups announced by the prime minister at the Round Table conference held at Srinagar on May 24 and 25, 2006. The issues under the purview of the Working Group V were as follows: Strengthening relations between the State and the Centre and to deliberate on 1) matters relating to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union; 2) methods of strengthening democracy, secularism and the rule of law in the State; 3) effective devolution of powers among different regions to meet regional, sub-regional and ethnic aspirations.
Working group held five meetings on December 12, 2006 at New Delhi, February 3, 2007 at Jammu, March 29, 2007 at New Delhi, September 2, 2007 at New Delhi and September 3, 2007 at New Delhi. The report was sought to address the issues raised by various members during the deliberations of the working group. |
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