Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said the party would discuss and review the political agenda with regard to Jammu and Kashmir only after all leaders including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti are set free.
He said that the aim of today’s meeting was to ensure that the four leaders, he had invited to the meeting, were free as claimed by the administration in the court.
“We will discuss and review the political agenda once all political leaders are set free,” Abdullah said.
Dr Farooq was talking to reporters at his residence here after meeting NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and former ministers Mohammad Shafi Uri, Abdul Rahim Rather and Nasir Aslam Wani.
Abdullah said he will also call other party leaders for similar meetings in the coming days.
The leaders attended the meeting days after the Jammu and Kashmir administration denied in the High Court the party’s claim that many of its leaders were in “illegal confinement at their homes”.
The National Conference (NC) had on Wednesday decided to convene Thursday’s meeting of its senior leaders after the local administration had informed the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that none of the 16 leaders, that the party claimed were in illegal confinement, were detained and that they were free to move around.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the NC had said that it had taken note of the government’s stand in the High Court on the petition filed by Abdullah and his son Omar to secure the liberty of its various leaders who have been under “illegal house detention”.
“On a perusal of the reply the party has noticed that the government has unequivocally submitted before the High Court that no leader is under detention and that they are free to move subject to necessary security arrangements,” the statement said.
“Now relying fully on the stand of the government before the HC that the members are free to move and expecting no hogwash on part of the government, the party president Farooq Abdullah has invited senior party members including Ali Mohammad Sagar, Abdul Rahim Rather, Mohammad Shafi Uri and Nasir Aslam Wani for a meeting at his residence on 20.8.2020 at 5 pm,” it had said.
