Sajad Lone walks out of J-K Assembly after motions to amend Lt Governor’s address is not put up for discussion

He also wanted to highlight the system of police verification, which he has described as a form of collective punishment. Other issues he raised were a demand for the repeal of the Public Safety Act as promised by the ruling National Conference during the 2024 Assembly elections; moving all “political prisoners” from J&K, who are detained in jails elsewhere, back to the UT; and a probe into the 1987 Assembly elections.

Taking up the Motion of Thanks to the L-G’s address, Speaker Rather said that Lone had moved some motions seeking amendments to the address. Disallowing them, Rather said that the Assembly had already passed a resolution seeking restoration of special status to J&K. He also said that the issues of police verification and PSA fall within the ambit of the central government, and that the 1987 election was not a recent occurrence.

In response, Lone said, “We are victims of police verification – the rules are very stringent. I am myself a victim… Nobody should be punished for what their family members have done. We cannot keep quiet on these issues.”

“If you had the intention, you should have kept repeal of PSA in the L-G’s address,” Lone said, to which the Speaker replied, “It cannot be done unless statehood is restored to J&K.”

Lone was joined by Congress’s Nizamuddin Bhat, who also criticised the present system of police verification system that people have to go through before their appointment to any government department or when seeking documents like passports to be issued.

When the Speaker refused repeated requests by Lone to place his amendment motions before the House for discussion, the People’s Conference leader staged a walkout in protest.

Talking to reporters outside the House, Lone said that procedurally, the Speaker should have placed his amendments before the House.

“I feel they are trying to muzzle us… They have imposed a total ban (on issues such as the ones Lone raised) and that is whyI have walked out from the House,” Lone said.