New ‘Apni Party’ in J&K to fight for statehood’s return
■ It’s chief, Bukhari, is seen as close to Delhi
A new political party bringing together mainly “disgruntled” politicians, including several former legislators and ministers, until recently associated with the three main established political outfits, was on Sunday formally launched here by its newly-elected chief Syed Altaf Bukhari.
As claimed by Mr Bukhari, a former minister in the PDP-BJP government known for his close proximity to the corridors of power in New Delhi, the core agenda of the new party, as an alternative to the traditional regional political parties like the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), would be restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood and
to secure its residents domicile rights on land and jobs.
He also said the new party christened as “Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party” would seek to preserve the self-respect and dignity of people of the erstwhile state, dignified return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and
empowerment of youth and women. “We’re not here to sell dreams and fantasies but will always be pragmatic, honest and fair in our approach. We have resolved to create a political platform where people are real stakeholders of the political process,” he told ■
reporters here.
He added that the launch of new party “puts a lot of responsibility on us as expectations and challenges are huge”.
He assured the people of J&K that the new party has not been floated by a family — a reference to the Valley’s iconic Abdullah and Mufti families — but “is by the commoners, for the commoners and of the commoners”. Hence, there will be total restriction that anybody who becomes president of party cannot be elected more than twice. Mr Bukhari was earlier on Saturday evening unanimously elected as president of the new party at a formal meeting of its founders held at his residence here.
The prominent among those who have joined the new party include former ministers Ghulam Hassan Mir, Muhammad Dilawar Mir, Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ahmad, Muhammad Ahsraf Mir, Abdul Majeed Paddar, Aijaz Ahmad Khan and Usman Majeed.
Also several other second-rung politicians who quit the PDP, NC,
Congress and some regional outfits recently or were expelled from these for their alleged anti-party activities too have joined it. Among them is J&K’s former chief secretary and exNC MLC Vijay Bakaya, Kamal Arora and Syed Asgar Ali, PDP’s Rafi Ahmed Mir, Javed Hussain Baig, Abdur Rahim Rather, Zafar Iqbal Manhas, Chaudhary Qamar Hussain, Noor Muhammad Sheikh, Raja Manzoor, Muhammad Yawar Mir and Javed Mirchal and Congress’ Manjit Singh, Mumtaz Khan, Vikram Malhotra. Keval Singh, Farooq Andrani and Irfan Naqeeb.
All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina, some businessmen, social activists and a lawyer have also jumped into the bandwagon. In their presence, Mr Bukhari said: “We’ve resolved to create a viable political platform that functions in accordance with the wishes of people and where the people are the real stakeholders of the political process.”