Extend NCM to J&K: Habibullah

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 12

A day after the Supreme Court ruled out directing the J&K Legislative Assembly to enact a law to set up a minority commission in the state, former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Wajahat Habibullah today said the panel should take a call on it and also advised the state government to extend its jurisdiction to J&K also.

“The issues of minorities of the state will be addressed automatically by extending NCM’s jurisdiction to J&K,” Habibullah told The Tribune, adding that during his tenure as chairman of the panel he had repeatedly advised the then state government to do so.

“I had reminded the then state government several times to extend the NCM jurisdiction but there was no positive response. Being a special category state, J&K has not taken any step to establish a minority commission to safeguard the interests of religious minorities,” said Habibullah.

Despite the pressing demand, the successive governments have always opposed the proposal to extend NCM jurisdiction to the state or enacting a law to set up own commission.

The last effort for setting up a commission was made by the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad (2005-2008), but it was put under the carpet after Omar Abdullah took over the reins of the state in 2009. Since then there had been no headway on the matter.

Interestingly, the coalition, in which BJP is an equal partner, had also filed an affidavit in the apex court opposing the minority commission.

Ankur Sharma, who had filed a PIL seeking directions to the state to establish a minority commission, said the case would again be listed after eight weeks.