Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 8: Speaker of Legislative Assembly, Mubarak Gul, today saved the Government from a major embarrassment in the House by adjourning it as he found the Treasury benches in minority when he was about to put the bill on Dehi Adalats to vote.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mir Saifullah tabled a bill on Dehi Adalats in the House this afternoon and PDP MLA, Chaudhary Zulfiqar Ali proposed some amendments in the bill and gave a brief speech in favour of his amendments.
NPP MLA, Harshdev Singh also wanted the Government to make some amendments in the bill in order to make it people friendly. MLA Bandipora Nizam-ud-din Bhat too proposed some changes in the draft of the proposed bill.
After the legislators finished their brief speeches on the bill, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that Government should be allowed to pass the bill at this moment. Saifullah suggested the changes demanded by the legislators would be given due consideration once the bill takes the shape of an Act and is implemented in the State.
PDP MLA Zulfikar who had brought the amendments said that he is not convinced by the contention of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister and would press for the amendments.
The Speaker while sensing that bill would be defeated since the treasury benches were almost empty said that Saifullah would motivate the members before it is put to vote. This did not go well with the PDP members who insisted for pressing the amendments.
While Opposition members were pressing for voting on the bill, the Speaker adjourned the House for 10 minutes. The PDP and NPP legislators objected to the adjournment and said that the Government has virtually collapsed on the floor of the House. They accused the Speaker of succumbing to the pressure from Government while announcing the adjournment of the House at the time when Treasury benches were in minority in the House as most of the seats were vacant.
After the adjournment, Ministers like Abdul Rahim Rather, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Manohar Lal Sharma, Nawang Rigzin Jora and Ajay Sadhotra returned to House in order to maintain the numbers for Treasury benches for the passage of the bill.
NPP legislator Balwant Singh Mankotia said that technically the Government has fallen since it could not get the bill passed through voice vote. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister could be seen making frequent rounds from House to outside and vice-versa. He at times was seen asking the watch and ward staff of the Assembly about the ‘whereabouts’ of ruling coalition ministers and legislators.
Harshdev Singh said that the incident is unprecedented in the history of the State Legislature. He said there was no reason for Speaker to adjourn the House adding that this means that Speaker has admitted that the Government is no more in power.
After an interval of 30 minutes, the House resumed the business and the Speaker asked the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister to make motion to take up the bill for consideration and voting. On this, PDP legislators Chaudhary Zulfiqar Ali, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, Javed Mustafa Mir, Basharat Bukhari, Dr. Shafi Ahmad and Abdul Haq Khan took to their feet and raised hue and cry over the ‘safe passage’ provided by Speaker for the passage of the bill. The bill was passed through voice vote and amendments were rejected.
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