Rajya Sabha member, representing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nazir Ahmad Laway on Friday paid heavy price for attending swearing-in ceremony of the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, GC Murmu in Srinagar on Thursday. He was expelled from the party for indulging in “anti-party activities”.
“The member of Rajya Sabha, Nazir Ahmed Laway, has been expelled from the basic membership of the party,” a PDP spokesman said in a statement here.
Earlier, Laway had torn a copy of the Constitution, along with PDP MP Mir Mohammed Fayaz, on August 5 before Union Home Minister Amit Shah laid the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Bill in Rajya Sabha.
Prior to this, Laway had abstained from voting against the Triple Talaq Bill in Rajya Sabha this year.
Laway was among handful of politicians who were invited to attend the swearing in ceremony as majority of them were not even extended a formal invitation by the state administration. Even local media was not extended an invitation to cover the swearing in ceremony.
PDP spokesman in a statement said, The decision to expel him was taken by the party leadership in view of Laway’s participation in the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor in Srinagar undermining the party’s stand.
He said that the participation of the MP was in contravention to the party’s stand regarding the current political situation and the revocation of Jammu & Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu on Friday appointed D C Raina as first Advocate General of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Raina has thrice served as the State’s topmost lawyer in the past eleven years.
This was the first appointment made by LG Murmu after he was administered the oath on Thursday.
In another incident, a vehicle of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was set on fire by some miscreants in south Kashmir district of Kulgam in the early hours of Friday.
Official sources said, miscreants set on fire a vehicle of BJP district Kulgam secretary Abid Hussain Khan at Bonagam at 0120 hrs. “Vehicle, which was parked outside his house, suffered major damage”. Another vehicle parked in the vicinity was also set on fire by the same miscreants.
Khan had earlier during the day on Thursday met recently elected Block Development Commission (BDC) chairpersons of the BJP in Kulgam. Police have registered a case and initiated proceedings in the matter.