J&K govt’s first test in assembly: tricky pomise on AFSPA and disturbed areas

The reason the government will face the heat on this promise is that the Act and the notifications declaring these areas “disturbed” have lapsed or expired in the first place.

When the new J&K assembly convenes for the first time on Wednesday, the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government will find itself in a tricky position on a promise it had made.

In its alliance agenda, the PDP-BJP coalition has promised to “examine the need for denotifying disturbed areas” that would “enable the union government to take a final view on the continuation of AFSPA in these areas”. The reason the government will face the heat on this promise is that the Act and the notifications declaring these areas “disturbed” have lapsed or expired in the first place.

The Disturbed Areas Act lapsed in 1998 and was never renewed. The notifications issued by the state (under AFSPA) in 2001 and 2005, declaring J&K “disturbed”, lapsed within six months.

When contacted, Law Minister Syed Basharat Bukhari said he would have to ascertain the facts on this. Law Secretary Mohammad Ashraf Mir agreed that the Disturbed Areas Act lapsed in 1998. “That Act was passed by the assembly in 1997 and it was valid only for one year. It wasn’t renewed,” he said. He said the state government issued a notification under section 3 of AFSPA — first in 2001 and subsequently in 2005 — to declare various districts as disturbed.

The Disturbed Areas Act was enforced in 1990, when Mufti was union home minister, former advocate general Ishaq Qadri said. “During governor’s rule it was renewed. In 1997, when this law expired, the then state government renewed it for one year. But due to pressure, the government didn’t renew it,” he said. “They (PDP-BJP) are only creating confusion.”

Former minister and NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar too said that the PDP knows they won’t able to do anything about AFSPA and are only misleading people.

The J&K Disturbed Areas Act, 1997 was the first such passed by the National Conference government, replacing similar laws enacted during President’s rule in 1992 and during Governor’s rule in 1990. After it lapsed in 1998, the J&K government in 2001 issued an order to extend disturbed areas to Jammu province but said that it was in addition to districts of Kashmir valley. “The government issued another notification in 2005,” Mir said. “This was nothing to do with the Disturbed Areas Act. These notifications were issued under section 3 of AFSPA,” he said.

These notifications were not valid after six months. In 1997, Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the AFSPA but simultaneously laid down that a declaration (of disturbed area) under Section 3 of AFSPA “has to be for a limited duration and there should be periodic review of the declaration before the expiry of six months”.

Thus if the state isn’t a disturbed area, the provisions of AFSPA cannot be made applicable. “I will ask PDP and BJP why they aren’t telling the truth. There is no Disturbed Areas Act. Why do they need to denotify any area from being disturbed if they want the AFSPA to go? They need to say it is illegal,” independent legislator Engineer Rashid said. “It is important that the truth about these political games on AFSPA are exposed on the floor of the House”.

Source:: Indian Express