Why Khanday Quit?

On Tuesday, I learned from my sources that Iqbal Khanday had quit his job after Chief Minister Mufti did not listen to his request that the Cabinet meeting of Aug 21 be deferred for a week and the transfer proposal list be not circulated to Ministers in advance. Later, that day Khanday confirmed to me this all and more but requested that he may be quoted only to the extent that he had confirmed having sent his papers to CM but declined to reveal reasons. That's what as a professional journalist I did, of course reporting the reason with quotes of my anonymous sources in bureaucracy. Now that, Mr Khanday has himself broken his silence to Greater Kashmir, let me also break my silence and say that he further told me: "My request of deferment of the meeting was turned down. I was told that the Cabinet meeting could be held in in my absence. BR Sharma was immediately appointed as Cabinet Secretary for a day. This made my position untenable as CS. It was unmistakeably Chief Minister’s expression of NO CONFIDENCE into the Chief Secretary. That made me call it quits. After all, what was the urgency of this meeting. What else were they going to do than chopping off heads of officers in just three four months?". GOING TO REVEAL MORE HOW IT ALL STARTED A FEW MONTHS BACK. Watch out for a story in a couple of days in STATE TIMES and this blog.