SRINAGAR: Omar Abdullah, National Conference leader, stated on Monday that Pakistan’s nomination of the widow of JKLF leader Mohammad Yasin Malik as a special advisor to the newly appointed interim prime minister was an internal problem for the neighbouring nation. Mishal Hussain Malik, a Pakistani national and Malik’s spouse, has been designated as Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar’s special counsellor on women’s empowerment and human rights. Do we select ministers in consultation with Pakistan? Why should we anticipate that they will consult with us before choosing their ministers? At the headquarters of his party in this city, Abdullah told reporters, “This is their internal matter, and we have nothing to do with it.The former chief minister of J-K also refrained from joining the political scuffle between the administration and the opposition Congress over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks about China taking Indian land in Ladakh. Rahul Gandhi will respond. What role do I play in it? Query him on this. Obviously, he must have heard about the problem from his colleagues in Ladakh. What can I say about what Rahul Gandhi or the Prime Minister said? I’m not in Ladakh,” he continued. Abdullah expressed optimism that the National Conference would prevail even if the matter ended up before the Supreme Court in regards to the poll symbol used in the Hill Council elections in Ladakh.”We’re accustomed to fighting this regime now. The Ladakh administration is compelled to seek the court repeatedly as a result of BJP pressure. We want the emblem we’ll use to run for office. What makes the Ladakh government opposed to it? We appeared before the HC, and the single judge bench ruled in our favour. They submitted a 300-page appeal to a Division Bench; we also won there. We have recently learned that they have filed an SLP with the Supreme Court, he continued. Has the NC symbol in Hill Council elections grown to the point where it requires referral to the SC by the administration? We anticipate success there as well, and our solicitors are prepared, he continued. When asked about the approaching ULB elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah responded that he wouldn’t comment until the results were revealed. The ULB surveys have not yet been made public. Let them make the announcement first. Some contenders, according to what we’ve heard, have already entered the race. When election dates are announced, we will get ready and fight the results, he stated. The “big question” of the day, according to Abdullah, is why the BJP is afraid to hold the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir when all other elections could be held.Why can’t elections for the assembly be held if ULB, Panchayat, and Parliament elections can? is the key question. Why is the BJP avoiding the assembly elections? Why do they feel afraid? “They ought to appear before the people,” he stated.
