New Delhi: The President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), Syed Sadatullah Hussaini has expressed his disagreement and disappointment with the Supreme Court verdict on Article 370. In a statement to the media, the JIH President said, “We do not agree and are disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the scrapping of Article 370. It is surprising that the apex court did not take notice of the way in which this decision was taken four years ago. Article 370 was abrogated suddenly and unilaterally without consulting the people or the state assembly and without proper debate in parliament. That definitely goes against the basic principles of parliamentary democracy. It is also unfortunate that the court did not address the issue of abrogating the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. Federalism has been seriously compromised. With this Supreme Court judgment in its defense, the Union government can now pick any state of India and convert it into a Union territory. Will this be good for democracy and the federal structure of our Union?”

Syed Sadatullah Husaini said, “The government must immediately restore statehood and conduct free and fair elections before the deadline set by the Supreme Court. The government must sincerely comply with the SC demand for setting up an “impartial Truth and Reconciliation committee to investigate and report on the violations of human rights both by the State and non-state actors at least since the 1980s and recommend measures for reconciliation also.”