Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 13: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today demanded a special Assembly session to discuss the arrest of MLA Doda Mehraj Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
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Speaking to reporters at Kupwara, Mufti said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly should have convened a session instead of “shooting the messenger” by issuing a showcause notice to PDP leader and MLA Pulwama Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra.
“Omar and the Speaker should have taken cognizance of the matter and called an urgent Assembly session to debate how Malik was booked under PSA,” she said, terming the arrest “unacceptable.”
Mufti said a resolution should have been passed in the Assembly and sent to the Union Home Ministry to mount pressure for Malik’s release.
“That could have created pressure on the Centre, and in the future they would have thought a hundred times before taking such an action,” she added.
“Settling political scores with the PDP, as the Speaker wants, can wait. An Assembly session must be held and a resolution passed,” she demanded.
Mehbooba criticised the elected Government for limiting its response to mere condemnations.
“Malik was slapped with PSA and our CM is telling his father he will be provided legal aid. Malik is capable of securing legal aid. If that was his (Malik’s father’s) purpose, he wouldn’t have gone to meet the CM. He wanted political pressure, not assurances,” she said.
Mufti added that if the CM was concerned about legal aid, “he should provide it to hundreds of detainees who genuinely cannot afford assistance and are in dire need.”
Mufti also criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for supporting the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 while responding to a question on the detention of MP Sanjay Singh in Srinagar on Thursday.
“They thought it was good for J&K and the country, but they failed to realise it was a humiliation. They must have now tasted its consequences. Singh was our guest-what happened to him was wrong,” she said.
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