CHANDIGARH Punjab Government has forwarded letter of pro-freedom Sikh leader and Khadoor Sahib MP-elect Amritpal Singh to the speaker of Lok Sabha, lower house of Indian Parliament. The letter seeks permission for taking oath as a Member of Parliament. 

The chief of Waris Punjab De organization, Amritpal Singh wrote this letter from Central Jail Dibrugarh in Assam, where he is lodged under the contentious National Security Act (NSA), after registering a thumping victory in the recently held parliamentary elections. The permission was sought under NSA’s section 15 on June 9. 

“Home secretary of Punjab has forwarded this letter to the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. Now, the speaker is to act on this and decide about oath taking within 60-days period which starts from June 25. As per the procedure, the speaker takes advice from the Home Department of Centre before taking the decision”, said his lawyer and former MP Advocate Rajdev Singh Khalsa.  

Amritpal Singh defeated his nearest contender and Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira by a margin of 1,97,120 votes.

On Monday, the National Investigation Agency or NIA gave consent for jailed Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, known as Engineer Rashid, to take oath as a Lok Sabha member on July 25. He has been lodged in jail since 2019 after being charged by the NIA under a draconian law UAPA. Rashid defeated former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah to win the Lok Sabha elections from the Baramulla seat as an Independent candidate.

After both developments, a glimmer of hope has emerged about the parole of Bhai Amritpal Singh who is detained for more than a year along with his nine aides. The NSA invoked against them for running a drive against drugs and spreading Sikh ethos in Punjab, which were termed as “terror activities” by the Indian government.