 Former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said that the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has decided to seek early hearing on petitions challenging abrogation of special status of J&K in the Supreme Court (SC).Mr Abdullah, who is Vice President of National Conference (NC), said the decision was made so that the petitions challenging August 5, 2019, move forward. “As decided in the recent meeting of the People’s Alliance we are seeking early hearings in this matter so that the petitions challenging 5th Aug 2019 move forward,” Mr Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.He also retweeted a post which read, “J&K Peoples Conference moves Supreme Court seeking early hearing of the batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisation of J&K.”J&K Peoples Conference, which is a signatory of Gupkar Declaration and a part of People Alliance, has filed a plea in the SC, seeking early hearing on a batch of petitions challenging Centre’s August 5 decisions.In the plea, Peoples Conference alleged that sweeping changes are being brought about by the Centre that impact the rights of a large number of people, including dilution of the safeguards earlier available to the permanent residents of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.The signatories of Gupkar Declaration-2019 include National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party, Congress, Communist Party of India (M), Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, Awami National Conference and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement. The Declaration was signed at the residence of NC President Dr Farooq Abdullah on August 4, 2019, a day ahead of scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35A and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories by the BJP lead NDA government. The resolution passed during the all-party meeting said the parties unanimously resolved that they would be united in their effort to protect and defend the identity, autonomy and special status of Jammu and Kashmir against all attacks and onslaughts. However, one of the signatories ? Shah Faesal ? has withdrawn from the declaration after he shunned politics.
