Srinagar, Aug. 9 -- On completion of seven years of incarceration of Baramulla Member of Parliament (MP) Engineer Abdul Rashid, the Awami Itihad Party (AIP) on Saturday made an appeal to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, to consider the bail plea of its party chief with urgency and constitutional fairness. The party spokesperson Inam Un Nabi said that seven years of incarceration of an elected MP without trial reaching its logical conclusion was not merely a legal matter but a serious test of justice, constitutional values and human conscience. He said the judiciary has repeatedly emphasised the importance of personal liberty and the principle that "bail is the rule and jail is the exception". "We are not questioning the judicial process. We have complete faith in the judiciary. Our only request is that justice must not be delayed, particularly when personal liberty is at stake," he said. Nabi along with party's state secretary Sheikh Ashiq and general secretary Nazir Ahmad Khan addressed a press conference in Srinagar seeking timely disposal of Rashid's bail question owing to his responsibilities as a public representative. "Er Rashid is not merely an accused. He is the democratically elected MP from Baramulla, representing nearly 40% of Kashmir's population. For seven long years, the democratic voice of his constituents has remained away from the people who elected him," Inam said. "The suffering is shared by lakhs of voters who placed their trust in their elected representative and whose voice has remained absent for seven years," he said.htc...