Mehbooba Mufti hopes J&K special status is upheld by SC

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that she had full faith in the Supreme Court of India and hoped that it would dismiss the plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution. 

“I’ve full confidence that our Supreme Court will again dismiss this plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution in the same way as it has done in these 70 years,” she said while speaking at the Independence Day ceremonial parade at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium.

She said that she was quite confident that the country’s institutions would continue to deliver justice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir “in the historic perspective of the state,” as they have done in the past. 

She said that when the people of the state decided to accede to the country on the basis of shared ideals of democracy and tolerance, these were the institutions, like Parliament, which responded positively to this thinking and that Jammu and Kashmir was accorded a special status within the country’s constitutional structure.

“The judiciary, fully endorsing the spirit of this relation, put its foot down and upheld the special status when the matter of its scraping was brought before it,” she said. “I hope that in future also these institutions would uphold this relation of mutual respect, cooperation and trust between the people of the State and rest of the country,” she added.

The chief minister said the entire political class of Jammu and Kashmir is united in defending and preserving the special status of the state. She said that she recently met leaders of all political parties in this regard and she was happy to note that there was an overwhelming consensus on the issue among all of them.

She once again pitched for dialogue and good India-Pakistan relations, saying dialogue was the only way ahead to sort out issues. “If peaceful negotiations can resolve all other issues in the country why can’t these help in redressing issues in Jammu & Kashmir?” she asked.