New Delhi

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) of Mehbooba Mufti has decided to boycott the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai that arrives in Srinagar today on a four-day visit to the Union territory for interaction with political leaders and the public.

The PDP said it was doing to mark its protest against the Centre for not taking up any steps to ease the lives of the people and also because the outcome of the delimitation exercise was widely believed to “be pre-planned."

"Our party has decided to stay away from this process and not be a part of some exercise, the outcome which is widely believed to be pre-planned and which may further hurt the interests of our people," PDP general secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura has said in a letter to the commission.

Addressed to Justice Desai, Hanjura’s letter says that the “constitutional changes with regard to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 were made illegally and unconstitutionally."

Hanjura said the party believes the commission lacks constitutional and legal mandate and its very existence and objectives have left the people of Jammu and Kashmir with many questions.

The Reorganization Act is a product of the same process, we are of the considered opinion that the Delimitation Commission lacks the constitutional and legal mandate in the first place and its very existence and objectives have left every ordinary resident of J&K with many questions, he said.

There are apprehensions that the delimitation exercise is part of the overall process of political disempowerment of the people of J&K that the government of India has embarked on. At the very core of these apprehensions is the process through which the commission has been constituted and the fact that while the delimitation process across the country has been put on hold till 2026, J&K has been made an exception," he added.