Omar mulls becoming party to statehood case in SC, says no one from Centre in touch with him on statehood

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said on Saturday that he “does not think anyone understands the disadvantages of being a Union Territory” better than him and that he was considering becoming a party to the case in the Supreme Court seeking restoration of J&K’s statehood.“I have held consultations with senior lawyers both in J&K and in New Delhi about the possibility of joining the case as the chief minister of J&K,” Omar said at a press conference here. "I am the only person in the country who has the experience of serving as both the CM of a state and of a UT,” he said, adding, “I am actively discussing with my legal team, and, based on their opinion, I may become a party to the case,” Omar said.On solicitor-general of India Tushar Mehta’s statement before the apex court that consultations were underway with the J&K administration regarding the restoration of statehood, Omar said he had learnt of this only from media reports. “The first time I heard of it was when the Supreme Court was hearing the case,” Omar added,The Supreme Court has given the Centre four weeks to respond to a batch of petitions seeking the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

A bench comprising chief justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran heard multiple petitions, including those filed by two persons, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and Ahmad Malik, seeking the implementation of the Centre’s assurance to restore statehood to J&K “at the earliest”.About the appointment of the advocate-general in J&K, Omar said he had “asked the previous advocate general to continue”. Without naming lieutenant-governor Manoj Sinha, Omar said the AG was stopped from attending work and told not to report to office.

“Technically, we don’t have an advocate-general right now because he is not allowed to function. I believe the authority to appoint an advocate-general is with the elected govt,” Omar said.“The advocate-general is the legal face of the government, and we are the only state or UT in the country without one attending court,” Omar added.On promoting tourism after the

Pahalgam terror attack

, Omar said his government has sent a team to Singapore, and that delegations will also visit London and Paris next month as part of international outreach efforts.Omar said two conflicting approaches are emerging within J&K’s tourism sector, with the elected government working to promote tourism and the administration under the L-G continuing to close several tourism destinations. “Tourists are willing to come, but the continuous closure of tourist destinations creates a negative impression and makes prospective tourists feel the Valley is unsafe,” he said. “These areas need to be reopened.

Even during 33 years of militancy, these places were never closed.”