Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 21: The Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Cultural and Welfare Forum has brought together prominent political and social figures, intellectuals, and youth from the Pahari community, transcending political affiliations and warned Omar led Govt not to fiddle with Pahari Tribe reservation.
Senior Forum member and former MLA of Kalakote, Ashok Kumar Sharma, presided over the session, which included former ministers, legislators, lawyers, and other eminent social figures associated with the Forum.
The primary focus of the meeting was to discuss the government’s three-member cabinet sub-committee tasked with reviewing reservations, along with pending cases in the High Court and other pressing issues. During a four-hour deliberation, participants offered constructive suggestions to safeguard the Constitutional Rights and interests of the Pahari community.
The Forum unequivocally conveyed to the Jammu and Kashmir government, led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, that the reservation granted to the Pahari community must remain unaltered. They stressed that the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status conferred upon the Pahari ethnic group, along with four other tribes, was based on comprehensive evaluations, including factual data and statistical analysis, leaving no room for revision.
The Forum further expressed gratitude to the BJP-led Central Government for fulfilling the three-decade-old genuine demand of the Pahari Tribe, ensuring justice by addressing the imbalance created by previous governments. They emphasized that any adjustments to the Pahari community’s reservation should be proportionate to their population ratio, which can only be determined through a new population census. Any premature changes would be unacceptable. They also warned that any decision adversely affecting the Pahari community’s cause would not augur well for the National Conference-led government.
To bolster advocacy for these issues, a 18-member interim committee was constituted. The committee includes prominent members such as former MLC Mohammad Rashid Qureshi, former MLA Ashok Kumar Sharma, former Vice chairman of Pahari Advisory Board and ex- Minister Shabir Ahmed Khan, former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Jahangir Hussain Mir, former MLC Ravinder Sharma, former MLA Shah Mohammad Tantray, former MLA Kuldeep Sharma, Iqbal Hussain Kazmi, Congress leader Sajjad Tariq, Syed Owais Bukhari (son of Mushtaq Bukhari), and Kaushal Kumar Bali.
The committee also includes a team of young lawyers, namely Zahid Sarfraz Malik, Altaf Hussain Janjua, Nadeem Rafiq Khan, Zamir Qureshi, Wajahat Kazmi, Sikandar Khan, and Bhuveshay Sudan. This team has been empowered to take necessary measures to defend the Pahari cause on political and legal fronts.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Mohammad Rashid Qureshi stated, “We discussed several crucial issues related to the Pahari community, particularly the three-member cabinet sub-committee formed to review the reservation.”
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