Srinagar: Speaker, Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Abdul Rahim Rather, on Saturday said that he has not disallowed or rejected the resolution on declaration of holiday on 13th July as alleged by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Rather said that the statement of Mehbooba Mufti (PDP chief) on social media is “misleading and not based on facts”.
Rather stated that the said resolution submitted by PDP MLA Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra was admitted during the Budget Session 2025-26 held in the month of March at Jammu.
The Speaker also said that the Assembly Secretariat received a total 111 resolutions from 34 members, out of which 87 resolutions were admitted for balloting and rest were disallowed as per rules.
Parra also submitted four resolutions and out of which two resolutions were admitted which includes the resolution “Declaring 13th July as official holiday to remember the sacrifices of the protestors against autocratic monarch forces”, Rather said in a statement here.
He said Parra was accordingly informed through Assembly Secretariat Bulletin No.LA1353/Legn/2025 dated 14/03/2025.
As per prescribed rules, relative precedence of the Private Members’ Resolutions was determined by separate balloting in terms of Rule-28 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in J&K Legislative Assembly in presence of seven members (MLAs) on 25th of March 2025 and 14 resolutions secured place in balloting which were listed in the House on 7th and 9th of April, 2025.
The resolution submitted by Parra, though admitted, did not secure a place during the balloting process, Rather pointed out.
He further said that the post of Speaker is the “epitome of impartiality and in no case it can be construed that the resolution has been rejected out rightly by the Speaker, which is not factually correct.”
Meanwhile, Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said the people will ‘judge for themselves’ after the Assembly Speaker rejected her statement on 13 July holiday.
“After refusing to exercise his discretionary powers to allow PDP’s important resolution seeking a holiday on 13 July Martyrs Day, the Hon’ble Speaker now denies ever rejecting it. Let people judge for themselves – why did the same Speaker using the same discretionary powers allow two government resolutions earlier but chose to block the one that sought to honour the martyrs of 13 July?” Mufti asked in a post on X.
Meanwhile, her daughter Iltija Mufti on Saturday paid floral tributes to the people who fell to the bullets of the Dogra army on July 13, 1931.
“Knowing that tomorrow we’d be prevented from moving out, managed to pay tributes to our martyrs who laid down their lives on 13th July 1931 for democracy,” Iltija Mufti said in a post on X.
She also posted a video showing her offering flowers on some of the graves of the July 13, 1931, “martyrs”.
“Their memory is being willfully erased yet their voices echo in every Kashmiris heart that refuses to bow & dares to hope,” she said.
