Cutting across party lines, thousands of displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) gathered at a sankalp (pledge) rally here from across the country and reiterated their demand for getting back their native areas falling across the Line of Control, which are illegally occupied by Pakistan. The first-ever mega rally of this kind was organised by the Jammu Kashmir People’s Forum headed by Romesh Sabbarwal, a prominent RSS activist, at the Padamshri Padma Sachdeva PG College for Women Gandhi Nagar here. According to political observers, the rally appeared to be aimed at setting the tone to make Centre agree to the Delimitation Commission’s recommendation for nomination of some representatives of displaced persons from PoJK to the Assembly, apart from two Kashmiri migrants, including a woman. These nominated MLAs, as per the Delimitation Commission’s recommendations, will have all voting rights in the House as has been the case in Puducherry Legislative Assembly, they pointed out. “Twenty-four seats have been kept vacant in the Legislative Assembly for people of PoJK,” Sabbarwal said, adding the Commission had not touched them while redrawing the boundaries of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. “Since one-third of the people had got displaced from areas of PoJK in 1947, eight of those seats shall be put to elections,’’ he said, appealing to all PoJK displaced people to apply for domicile certificate.
