NC to approach SC: Farooq

Jammu: National Conference president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said on Friday that his party is preparing to approach the Supreme Court against the Delimitation Commission’s recommendations as it believes that the very basis of the exercise is “illegal”. The veteran politician, who has been CM of the erstwhile state three times, also said the time has come for the opposition parties to come together and fight the forces who are bent on destroying India’s secular fabric.

Giving a detailed account of his interactions during the Delimitation Commission meeting earlier this week, Abdullah told PTI that the very first point raised “by us at the meeting was that the commission was illegal” as the party’s petition challenging the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir was pending in the Supreme Court.

However, commission chairperson Justice (retd.) Ranjana Desai countered the National Conference’s argument by saying that as far as the panel was concerned she had been given authority by the government and, therefore, she had done this job.

On the Supreme Court not interfering in recommendations made by previous Delimitation Commissions, Abdullah said the present commission was born after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, which has been challenged in the top court and no decision has been pronounced on it yet. “That is why...we are going to the Supreme Court. Others have also gone,” he said. —(PTI)