FORMER J&K Chief Minister Omer Abdullah said on Tuesday said that if elected to power, National Conference will repeal controversial Public Safety Act (PSA) on the first day. In an address to the NC workers at Dooru in Aanantnag, Omer said that the law was in force only in J&K and its sole aim was to harass the people in the union territory. Omer also spoke at length about the alleged effort to give local jobs and land resources to outsiders. The NC president was in south Kashmir to mobilize support for the party in preparation for Assembly elections which are likely to be held early next year. South Kashmir has been the traditional stronghold of the PDP, which is the NC’s ally in the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. The PDP also performed well in the area in the District Development Council polls in 2020. So, it would be interesting to see if the NC fares better than its ally-cum-rival in the area in Assembly elections.
That said, Omer’s pledge to do away with the PSA if elected to power is certain to resonate with a large number of people in union territory, who see the law as violative of their freedoms. At the same time, Omer’s promise to repeal the PSA has an ironic ring to it. The law was first enacted by the J&K government headed by NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1978 to deter timber smuggling. But after the eruption of militancy in 1990, the law, which provides for detention of up to two years without trial, was used against militants and separatists. .The NC during its rule has also liberally used the law. But the alleged “misuse” of law over the last thirty years has always been a subject of contentious debate in J&K.
In 2011, the then government led by Omer himself tried to amend the law termed by the Amnesty International a “lawless law”. The PSA, Amnesty had said, is used “to secure the long-term detention of individuals against whom there is insufficient evidence for a trial”. Incidentally, the Amnesty’s figures of detention under the PSA over the preceding two decades ranged from 8000-20000. But not much changed in the law after Omer’s attempt to amend it. It is true that the law has been widely used and misused over the past three decades, which has created a strong public opinion in favour of its repeal. And it would be great if the existing government also took a closer look at the law and tried to modify it, if not entirely do away with it.
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