J-K speaker admits PDP's resolutions to restore Waqf Board, cadre of officers

Srinagar, Oct 22 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker has admitted two private member resolutions by PDP leader Wahid-ur-Rehman Para, one of which seeks restoration of J&K Waqf Board and handing it over to a religious conglomerate headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The second private member's bill is about restoration of J&K cadre of IAS, IPS, KAS and KPS officers, an official said.

The nine-day autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will begin here on Thursday.

"In terms of the Rule...in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, I am to intimate that the Speaker has been pleased to admit your Resolutions -- to restore J&K Waqf Board and entrust it custodianship to the Muttahid-e-Malis-e-Ulema (MMU) and to restore J&K cadre of IAS, IPS, KAS and KPS officers," the assembly secretariat said in a communication to Para.

Private member's resolutions are generally balloted before they can be scheduled for discussion in the House.

The MMU is a conglomerate of religious bodies headed by Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, which believes that the 2025 Waqf Amendment Act undermines Muslim control over religious trusts and is discriminatory.

In September 2025, the Supreme Court stayed certain provisions of the Waqf Act but did not address all the concerns of the MMU.

The private member bill seeking restoration of IAS, IPS and erstwhile cadres of the state comes in the wake of merger of the civil services officers of the former state into the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre after the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

This effectively ended the separate J&K cadre for IAS and IPS officers.

The Reorganisation Act also led to the dismantling of the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) and Kashmir Police Service (KPS), replacing them with new structures under the central government's control. PTI SKL KVK KVK