July 2, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 1,1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, July 1: AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid on Monday declared untenable a reference filed by leader of the opposition Barrister Sultan Mahmood in which he had sought disqualification of Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan for supporting “division of Kashmir”.

In the reference submitted on June 19 Mr Mahmood had accused the prime minister of deviating from the ideology of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan by presenting the Chenab formula aimed at dividing Kashmir.

He had argued that by supporting division of Kashmir the prime minister had breached his oath that he would remain loyal to the country (Pakistan) and the cause of accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan.

However, in his detailed verdict on the matter the speaker said that he had minutely examined Mr Mahmood’s arguments, relevant sections of the interim constitution as well as other legal points and had reached the conclusion that the powers of the speaker with regard to disqualification reference were limited and he could not send any reference to the chief election commissioner (CEC).

“The speaker can only send a disqualification reference to the CEC when it is established that any of the clauses of the disqualification law is applicable to the concerned legislator,” he said.

Disqualification from being a member of the legislative assembly was clearly stipulated in section 24(2) of the interim constitution and none of its clauses applied to the matter in question, he said.

Mr Khalid added that none of the disqualification clauses mentioned in section 5(2) of the AJK Legislative Assembly (Elections) Ordinance 1970 applied to Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan.

He said that for the sake of academic discussion he wanted to place the issue on record that the question of allegiance to the ideology of entire state’s accession to Pakistan would arise if the UN-sponsored plebiscite was to be held.

He also pointed out that under the constitution every citizen of Azad Kashmir enjoyed the freedom of expression.