Delimitation panel for J&K: 2 seats for Kashmiri Migrants, nominations for PoJK displaced in Assembly

In the case of those displaced from PoJK though, that was not the case. Instead, 24 seats meant to represent areas under Pakistani occupation were frozen in the outgoing Assembly.

In the new Assembly, the panel has said, these seats should continue to be set aside, but some representatives of people who moved here from PoJK should be nominated to the House.

Of the two members from the Kashmiri Migrants community to be nominated to the House, the panel has said that at least one should be a woman. They would enjoy powers at par with those of nominated members in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The demand for more representation for them in the Assembly has been a long-standing one among the PoJK displaced. Unlike migrant Pandits who can vote for the Assembly constituencies where they are registered from wherever they currently reside, the PoJK displaced vote for the J&K constituencies they are registered as electorate, with the 24 seats kept for them vacant.

The population of displaced persons from PoJK in the Union Territory is estimated at 14 lakh, with nearly 7 lakh of them voters, says Rajiv Chuni, chairman of SOS International, a prominent organisation of Displaced Persons from PoJK. “Our demand was to defreeze one-third of the seats reserved for us in the Assembly and get them filled by allowing us to vote at our present places of stay to elect representatives for our native areas still under the occupation of Pakistan, as allowed for Kashmiri Pandits,’’ he said.

With the government opting instead for nomination of their representatives, it should ensure that the selection was done by the President of India and not anybody else, Chuni said.

Political observers anticipate problems on several counts going ahead. The reservation for Kashmiri Migrants, for example, draws a distinction between migrant and non-migrant members of the Pandit community. This could lead to demands for representation from members of other minority communities like Sikhs who left the Valley in the wake of militancy.

The recommendation regarding the PoJK displaced, secondly, could throw fresh spotlight on areas that Pakistan claims as its. Political analyst Zafar Choudhary pointed out that India has held back on giving them representation so far, while Pakistan started nominating people to fill up seats in the PoJK Assembly kept reserved for areas of J&K on this side of the border as far back as 1974.

Incidentally, the Delimitation Commission’s final report comes just three days ahead of a scheduled rally of displaced persons from PoJK in Jammu on May 8. The Jammu Kashmir People’s Forum has called for a ‘Shardanjali & Punya Bhoomi Smaran Sabha’ to pay tributes to those who died during 1947.

Chairperson Romesh Sabbarwal said they want Union Home Minister Amit Shah to address the event, though there is no formal confirmation from him.

Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai, the Delimitation Commission had Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and J&K’s State Election Commissioner K K Sharma as members.

The Centre has been saying that elections to J&K, long overdue, would be held after the delimitation exercise was over.