On the eve of the 'much-awaited visit of the Delimitation Commission in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples' Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) demanded the restoration of statehood before holding assembly elections in the Union Territory.
"As far as the restoration of statehood is concerned, it has been BJPs commitment on the floor of the Parliament, and they must honour their word. So, any assembly election must be held only after the restoration of full statehood for J&K", PAGD stated in a statement issued on Monday.
After a three-hour-long marathon meeting on Sunday evening, PAGD issued an official statement on Monday morning to clear its stand on the outcome after all-party meeting with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on June 24.
Amalgam for taking visible CBMs
All the members of the PAGD expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the Delhi meeting especially at the absence of any substantial Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails and taking concrete steps to end the siege and atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019. "This would have initiated the much-needed process of reaching out to the people of J&K who are the biggest stakeholders and sufferers of the J&K problem", the statement reads.
Reiterates commitment to restore Article 370
The spokesperson said that the PAGD reiterated its commitment to fight together to reverse the "unconstitutional and unacceptable" changes foisted on the people of J&K on August 5, 2019, using all constitutional, legal, and political means at its disposal. "PAGD's struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible.", mentioned in the statement.
PAGD maintains silence on delimitation panel's visit
Although formal invitations have been extended to all the five constituents of the PAGD for meeting with Delimitation Commission, the alliance has maintained a silence over meeting with the visiting panel. In the official statement, the PAGD has not mentioned even a single word about the visit of the panel.
The Delimitation Commission has invited leaders of national and regional political parties in J&K for a meeting during its visit to the Union Territory from Tuesday, July 6.
Apart from meeting District Electoral Officers (DEOs) of all the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the Delimitation Commission led by retired judge Ranjana Prakash Desai and Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra will meet with representatives of political parties at Srinagar and Jammu.
During its four-day visit, the commission will be interacting with the political parties and their leaders in Srinagar on July 6 and those in Jammu on July 8.
