The Hindu : National : Motion against Kargil Council chief causes furore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

National

National

Motion against Kargil Council chief causes furore

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, NOV. 24. A political controversy has erupted in Jammu and Kashmir with a no-confidence motion being passed against the Chief Executive Councillor, Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Council, and senior National Conference (NC) leader, Qamar Ali Akhoon.

On Monday, 16 of the 30-member Kargil Council voted in favour of the motion, introduced some days ago.

The Chief Executive Officer, Mohinder Singh, has urged the State Government to fix a new date for the election of the Council chairman. This led to jubilation in the camp of Asgar Ali Karbalayee who has been positioned the new chairman by non-NC members. But the NC camp alleged that there was some "foul play" by the State Government in the developments.

`Unconstitutional'

The NC leader and former Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, alleged that the motion was passed against the constitution of the Council. He said: "Four nominated councillors have no right to vote in the election of the chairman and this is a contempt of the High Court which has already specified that nominated members have no voting rights." The NC sought the Governor's intervention into the "unwarranted and unconstitutional" removal of Mr. Akhoon. A party delegation led by Mr. Rather, called on the Governor, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha, and apprised him of the situation and sought his intervention.

The non-NC camp in the Kargil council said that the no-confidence motion was passed constitutionally. Speaking to , Mr. Karbalayee said: "We have 16 members in the 30-member Council, whereas the National Conference has only 13 members."

The State Government had created the Council — an important federal tier — by issuing a notification last year. The elections were held in July, 2003 and after the results were announced, Mr. Akhoon got the support of 13 members. Recently, as per the Sub-section 2 of Section 4 of the Council, four members were nominated by the State Government and three vacant seats of Zanskar belt were filled by elections. This altered the political combination and tilted the scales against Mr. Akhoon.

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