Controversy erupts over constitution of House Committees

Srinagar, May 13: A major controversy erupted over the constitution of House Committees in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, with Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma accusing the Speaker of bias and charging him with preferring ruling alliance MLAs in allocating the chairmanship of the panels.
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather on Wednesday constituted 13 House committees.
The Speaker constituted 13 House committees, including three financial committees.
According to notifications, the Speaker will be the ex-officio chairman of four committees, while nine committees will be headed by MLAs from different parties.
Of the nine committees to be headed by MLAs, five will be chaired by legislators belonging to the ruling National Conference, and one each by the BJP, Congress, CPI(M), and an independent supporting the ruling alliance.
According to the notifications, NC’s Nazir Gurezi, Mir Saifullah, Justice (Retd.) Hasnain Masoodi, Farooq Ahmad Shah and Ali Muhammad Sagar will helm, respectively, the Estimates Committee, Public Undertakings Committee, Privileges Committee, Petitions Committee, and Assurances Committee.
The notifications further state that BJP’s Surjeet Slathia, CPI(M)’s Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, independent Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, and Congress’s Nizam-ud-din Bhat will respectively head the Public Accounts Committee, Environment Committee, Subordinate Legislation Committee, and Ethics Committee.
In a statement issued here this evening, Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma said that Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather’s decision to hand over the chairmanship of eight out of nine House committees to MLAs of the ruling National Conference-led alliance smacks of a move to turn the J&K Assembly into the National Conference’s headquarters, Nawai Subah.
He said that the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly belongs to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and that the BJP will resist any move to turn it into the fiefdom of any party.
“The decision to appoint eight MLAs of the ruling party as heads of the committees is totally unjustified and an insult to the mandate of the people of J&K,” he said, adding that the universally accepted principle of proportional representation has been trampled by the Speaker.
He said the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly empower the Speaker to nominate chairman of House committees, but discretion must be exercised fairly in all decisions. (KNO)