The Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly has completed over five months of its five-year term, yet the crucial post of deputy speaker remains vacant.
According to the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the election for the deputy speaker must be conducted “as soon as may be”. “The Legislative Assembly shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the Assembly to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof and, so often as the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the Assembly shall choose another member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be,” reads sub-section (1) of section 19 of the law.
As per parliamentary convention, the deputy speaker’s post is offered to the largest opposition party in the Assembly.
In the previous PDP-BJP coalition government, the position was given to the National Conference, which held only 15 seats at the time. Nazir Gurezi of NC was elected as Deputy Speaker. Similarly, during the Congress-NC government, the post was held by PDP’s Sartaj Madni.
Sources told that the NC has neither shown an inclination nor disinclination to offer the Deputy Speaker’s post to the BJP, which holds 28 seats in the Assembly.
“As of now, NC has not shown any sign of handing over the post to the opposition,” they said, adding that the party is treading a cautious path over the issue—(KNO)
