SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather on Friday asserted that the National Conference (NC) has always opposed the consumption of alcohol and will continue to do so, recalling that he personally opposed the practice during his tenure as Finance Minister.
“National Conference was, is, and will remain against alcohol. When I was Finance Minister, I also stood against alcohol at that time,” Rather said.
The Speaker termed alcohol a “curse” and urged religious scholars to guide people away from what he described as a violation of Qur’anic commandments.
“I would like to request our religious scholars and preachers to inform people that it is a curse to use something that has been prohibited in the Qur’an. We should all respect the Qur’anic commandments and follow them,” he said.
Speaker Rather recalled an attempt to ban the practice during his tenure as Finance Minister, but said the decision could not be implemented due to a lack of majority in the Assembly.
“The Memorandum of Understanding demanded that it should be banned. I said at that time that the Assembly’s memorandum was within its rights. There should be a majority to take any decision,” he added. (KNS)
