SRINAGAR — A political row has unfolded between Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti over an Assembly resolution proposing that July 13 be declared a public holiday.
The controversy erupted after Mehbooba said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah government’s proposal sent to the Lieutenant Governor about declaring July 13 and December 5 as public holidays would have carried weight if the Speaker had supported the PDP’s resolution for the same in the Assembly.
“The Speaker’s outright rejection of the resolution was unexpected & disappointing. Today’s exercise looks more like a lip service than any serious effort,” Mehbooba said in a post on X yesterday.
Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Speaker Rather today refuted Mehbooba’s claim regarding the alleged rejection of a resolution seeking a holiday on July 13.
“The said statement is misleading and not based on facts. The said resolution submitted by Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra was admitted during the Budget Session 2025-26 held in the month of March at Jammu,” he said.
Rather, a senior leader of the ruling National Conference, said that the Assembly Secretariat received a total of 111 resolutions from 34 Members and out of which 87 resolutions were admitted for balloting and the rest were disallowed as per rules.
Parra had 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”.
Parra was accordingly informed through the Assembly Secretariat Bulletin on March 14.
“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 7 Hon’ble Members on 25th of March 2025 and 14 resolutions secured place in balloting which were listed in the House on 7th & 9th of April, 2025. The resolution submitted by Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, MLA, though admitted, did not secure place during the balloting process. So the process was completed as per the rules of procedure,” he said.
Rather said that the post of Speaker is the epitome of impartiality and in no case can it be construed that the resolution has been rejected outright by the Speaker, which is not factually correct.
After the clarification by the Speaker, Mehbooba said let the people judge for themselves.
“After refusing to exercise his discretionary powers to allow PDP’s important resolution seeking a holiday on 13 July Martyr’s Day, the Hon’ble Speaker now denies ever rejecting it. Let the 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?” she said.
July 13 is remembered for the sacrifice of 22 Kashmiris who were shot dead outside Srinagar Central Jail in 1931 during protests against Maharaja Hari Singh, the then Dogra monarch of Jammu and Kashmir. The day was previously a gazetted holiday, observed officially by the government until the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
