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| State government's casual approach to SAC, SIC selections surprises all | | | Early Times Report
jammu, July 19: The selection panel for the State Accountability Commission (SAC) comprising the chief minister, speaker of the state legislative assembly, state law minister, chief justice of the J&K High Court and leader of the opposition in the assembly could not meet yet again on Monday to finalize the selections.
Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to pass the accountability bill in 2003 to clear the decks for the formation of the SAC which is the overarching body in the state equivalent to the Lokpal at country level. While a debate is going on within the country whether the Prime Minister should be brought under the scrutiny of the Lokpal Bill or not, the state chief minister is already a part of the accountability jurisdiction of the SAC.
Such an important legal and moral body has been treated with criminal casualness by the state government and the main opposition in the state legislative assembly. The SAC selection panel could not meet in 2010 as Ms Mehbooba Mufti was not available on the day and date conveyed to her by the state government.
On 18 July 2011, the meet of the SAC selection panel was postponed because of the chief minister, Omar Abdullah's sudden indisposition following which all his engagements and appointments for the day were cancelled.
The SAC selection panel had once met in 2010 in the absence of Ms Mufti and forwarded its recommendations regarding two members. The state governor had promptly returned the SAC panel's recommendations with the observation that the SAC selection panel meet had taken place in absence of the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
It is no secret that both the ruling NC-Congress alliance and the opposition PDP have their preferences and priorities as to who should be selected as the chairperson and members of the SAC.
Names of retired chief justices, Bashir Ahmad Khan, Bilal Nazki and V.K. Gupta were shortlisted by the state government for selection to the chairperson's post. No guesses are needed to understand that Justice Khan would be the preferred choices of the PDP. Justice Bilal Nazki would also have the PDP blessing and to some extent that of the NC. This leaves Justice V.K. Gupta who would be supported by both the NC and the Congress for the top job in the state. Those shortlisted for the members of the SAC were Justice S.K. Gupta, Justice B.A. Kirmani. Justice R.C. Gandhi and Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain. Of those shortlisted for the members posts, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain retired recently from the state high court.
The delay in the constitution of the SAC with its new chairperson and members is likely to raise more fingers at the functioning of the state government whose could-not-care-less attitude has started affecting every sphere of public functioning in the state.
The state government has also decided to sleep over the matter of selections for the members of the State Information Commission (SIC) if sources are to be believed.
At present the SIC is functioning with just its chairman, G.R. Sofi and the functioning of the SIC is seriously handicapped because of the non-availability of its members.
Four names had been doing the rounds for the members' selection panel for the SIC which included a retired bureaucrat of proven integrity and a senior journalist of repute and credibility. Sources have told Early Times that the state government has decided to put the selection of the SIC members on the hold as neither the retired senior bureaucrat nor the senior journalist have any political god fathers to push for their selections. It is also reliably learnt that the government is waiting for the inclusion of the names of some tainted senior bureaucrats into the SAC selection panel's shortlist so that the non-sponsored retired bureaucrat and the senior journalist of proven integrity and credibility are smoothly eased out of the final selections. It happens only in J&K! |
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