Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday announced that his government will repeal the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA) once the Union territory regains statehood.
“To revoke the PSA, we need to have full statehood. Security and law and order must be under an elected government. The day these powers are restored to us, I won’t wait for an assembly session — the law will be removed through an ordinance,” Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.
He recalled that when his party released its election manifesto last year, some journalists had pointed out that several commitments were beyond the Union territory’s current powers.
“At that time, I clarified that we are aware of the limitations. We can’t fulfil certain promises under the UT status. We never claimed we’d remove the PSA in a day or in the first session — but we have committed to doing it,” he said.
The Public Safety Act, introduced in 1978 to prevent timber smuggling, was later invoked against separatists and individuals accused of aiding terrorism after 1990.
The law has recently faced strong criticism after it was used to detain sitting Doda MLA and Aam Aadmi Party leader Mehraj Malik.
