Govt, PDP mute to reports of Mufti's 'health problem'

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Aug 31: Even as the social media, including a section of the regular media, remained abuzz with reports of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s "health problem" on Monday, the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as well as the State government chose to remain mute spectators.

Reports suggesting imminent possibility of change of guard in the State government in the wake of Mufti's diagnosis at a Mumbai hospital were neither contradicted nor confirmed by the government and the ruling party functionaries. Government’s designated spokesperson and Minister of Education Naeem Akhtar did not respond to phone calls. His cellphone was switched off for several hours.

Directorate of Information did not make mention or clarification with regard to the reports going viral on social media and being picked up by a section of the conventional media. In around a dozen of its news bulletins issued on Monday, there was no reference to the speculations that had every potential of creating uncertainty in the government functioning and delivery.

It was reported explicitly by some agencies that suffering from a serious ailment, Mufti had begun efforts to install his daughter Mehbooba, who is currently Lok Sabha member from South Kashmir, as his successor and Chief Minister.

Even Chief Minister's Political Analyst Waheed-ur-Rehman Para did not respond to phone calls from STATE TIMES. In a Tweet, Chief Minister's Advisor Prof. Amitabh Mattoo said that he had met Mr Mufti three days back and found him physically and mentally fit.

PDP spokesperson Dr Mehboob Beg maintained that he had no knowledge of this development as he was for the whole day busy with the fourth-day remembrance ceremony of his elder sister who passed away at her home in Los Angeles, USA, last week.

General Secretary Nizam-ud-din Bhat insisted that PDP did not feel any need to respond to “rumours”. According to him, there were currently no efforts afoot to install Ms Mufti as Chief Minister.

On the sidelines of her major district level public meeting at Baramulla, Mehbooba Mufti told journalists that her father was in good health. "Didn't you people notice that he delivered a speech for half-an-hour on 15th August? Did you find any trouble with him? We cannot help, if people speculate", she asserted without categorically refuting reports of her father's health problem. She claimed that Mufti had gone to see his son in Bangalore via Delhi and Mumbai. "He is back in Delhi now and will return to Srinagar tomorrow", Mehbooba said, while scuttling further queries and diverting to other issues.

Off the record, at least two the PDP leaders said that Chief Minister had been diagnosed with a malignant health problem in USA and currently he had undergone check-up at a specialised treatment hospital in Mumbai.

STRENGTHENING FAMILY

Sources revealed to STATE TIMES that a couple of days before his departure to Mumbai via Delhi, Mufti drove all the way to his estranged brother-in-law Sartaj Madni's home and motivated him over playing a visible and active role in the party. Madni was known to be upset over being dropped when Mufti recommended nominees and distributed tickets for vacant seats in Legislative Council. Madni was earlier tipped to be elected or nominated as a member and subsequently to be elected as Chairman of the Upper House. In the last three months, he lived in total oblivion.

Sources said that Mufti was accompanied to Madni's home near Wanpooh village by his wife Gulshan besides both the daughters, Mehbooba and Rubaiya. Next day, Madni called on Mufti at his Gupkar Road residence in Srinagar. Thereafter, he resumed his political activity in his Devsar constituency where he lost in the last year's Assembly elections to the Congress candidate Mohammad Amin Bhat.

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OMAR ABDULLAH TWEETS

"Rumours about Mufti Sb's ill health are rife. I hope they are wrong & pray to Allah for his long life & good health. Allah shafa bakshay".

AMITABH MATTOO TWEETS

"@abdullah_omar. Met Mufti Sahib three days ago. Mentally alert and physically no sign of any serious ailment".

OMAR ABDULLAH TWEETS

"@amitabhmattoo that's very good to hear. Hopefully your tweet will put an end to rumours & uncertainty".

END

How Iqbal Khandey was 'pushed to the wall' in Mufti's government

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 30: Breaking a jinx, ebullient and egoistic Mohammad Iqbal Khandey with his induction into IAS in 1978 became an icon for thousands of aspirants of the green channel of bureaucracy in Jammu and Kashmir. The enfant terrible---from a distant village of Kokernag hogged headlines in 1985 when, on one afternoon, he was snubbed by Chief Minister Ghulam Mohammad Shah for coming to the Civil Secretariat in blue jeans. Within minutes, Shah made General Administration Department issue a circular banning Western outfits for government officials. It stopped short of giving out a dress code.

Until the end of his 37-year-long career, controversies---as also tragedies----followed Mr Khanday like a shadow. His marriage to the judge Kaneez Fatima knit him into the State’s most influential bureaucratic network which he represented by default for over three decades. 

His firsts----from cracking the IAS as a Kashmiri Muslim boy from a pastoral background to his landing in jail as Principal Secretary in the infamous Srinagar Sex Scandal that finally failed in the court when the witnesses turned hostile and CBI chose not to file an appeal----are innumerable. He boldly faced situations and survived potentially killer ailments his subordinates like Azad Lone didn't. Destiny, nevertheless, left him bereft of his only son, at the young age of 26. Sajid, according to the family friends, was a promising lawyer. Daughter Sehar had a brief tryst with PDP which fielded her as a candidate in the Assembly elections of 2008.

Few would have expected a Chief Minister like Omar Abdullah to reinstate Khandey into the mainstream of bureaucracy. One fine morning, Omar got him back to the Civil Secretariat as Principal Secretary Agriculture Production. Minister of Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir was widely perceived to be the man behind Khandey’s rehabilitation, and after Madhav Lal's shifting to Delhi, as Chief Secretary.

Again, speculations were rife with change of guard in bureaucracy when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed returned to power in March this year. However, contrary to a many speculations, Mufti retained both the top choices of his political bete noire Omar Abdullah---Chief Secretary Khandey as well as Principal Secretary Bharat Bhushan Vyas.

Khandey's resignation last week didn't come out of blue. Like Mufti’s old creation, Justice (retd) Ali Mohammad Mir's quitting on a protest note towards the end of his term as Chairman State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Khanday stepped down three months ahead of his reaching superannuation. As Mir lamented that Mufti had ignored all of his recommendations against the security forces personnel involved in human rights abuse, Khandey made it public that he had been reduced "to the level of a stenographer".

Earlier, Mr Riyaz Jan quit within weeks of his appointment as Advocate General by the Mufti government. He too complained of "interference" into his working and alleged that Advocate General's office was sought to be reduced to a joke.

Jan's replacement by the young advocate Jehangir Iqbal Ganai by the Mufti government was the first embarrassment for Khandey. PDP high ups insist that when Ganai's order of appointment was issued, he and his father (former Secretary of Legislative Assembly) Iqbal Ganai were closeted with Chief Secretary. But, next day, Khanday was heard telling his bureaucratic colleagues that he had learned about Ganai's appointment through newspapers. "Jehangir is my relative. I would have at least greeted him on his appointment", a sulking Khandey told a colleague.

Khandey, according to well-placed political and bureaucratic sources, had "serious reservations" over the nominees submitted by Chief Minister Mufti to Raj Bhawan for appointment as Chairman and Members of the State Public Service Commission (PSC). It was only when Governor Narendra Nath Vohra returned the list that Mufti got eliminated all the nominees sponsored by at least three Ministers. However, Khandey's resentment was not fully addressed as Mufti resisted even the Governor’s pressure who acknowledged Lateef-uz-Zamaan Deva's integrity but wanted a senior officer of the rank of Financial Commissioner/Chief Secretary to head the constitutional body. Deva was just a junior Secretary rank official.

Mufti put his foot down for just two nominees----Deva and academic Mushtaq Wani, whose lawyer brother Mumtaz Wani lives and practises in Virginia near Washington DC and is known to have been Mufti’s host on two occasions, each time for around a month. The Wanis, people in America insist, have grown as family friends with the Muftis. All others of the first list were replaced. It was months later that Cabinet's post facto sanction was sought merely as a formality for Advocate General's and the PSC incumbents' appointment.

Significantly, Governor did not administer oath of office and secrecy to Mr Deva and this constitutional ritual was left to the Chief Minister.

For around three months prior to Chief Secretary’s resignation, a section of bureaucrats and Ministers laboured hard to make Mufti believe that Khandey had his personal ambition for the post of Chairman PSC. It was pointed out that he had prevailed upon Omar Abdullah to leave the appointment of members and Chairman of PSC to the "next government" towards the beginning of Assembly elections last year. On that point of time, Omar had recommended Khursheed Ganai (1982 batch IAS and FC Industries) as Chairman PSC. Some of the bureaucrats and politicians made out that with deferment after deferment and by way of submitting only the deficient proposals to Raj Bhawan, Khandey wanted to keep the top job reserved for himself till his retirement in November 2015.

On one occasion, Governor wanted Omar to recommend only the Chairman but Khandey, as many believe, played the saboteur. This is believed to have strained relationships between Khandey and the top contender Ganai who, otherwise, were close relatives.

Khandey is believed to have also resented transfer and appointment of over a dozen officers and bureaucrats recommended by politicians. As Mufti failed to protect Khandey’s proposals, which were drastically changed in three Cabinet meetings, he also refused to oblige Chief Secretary in recommending bureaucrats like Mohammad Ashraf Bukhari (Commissioner Secretary Agriculture Production) as members of PSC and Chairpersons of certain undertakings. Bukhari is due to retire in March 2016.

Paradoxically, Farooq Abdullah's most disliked bureaucrat Iqbal Khandey, who was picked up by Mufti as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister in 2002, is unceremoniously out in Mufti's second term.

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KASHMIR FIRSTPOST NEWSBREAK

3 killed, 16 injured in Pakistan firing on several BSF posts and villages in RS PORA SECTOR in Jammu. All civilians. Some of the injured critical.

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.

High Court stays Asif Hamid Khan’s attachment to GAD

Removed as MD Agro, Khan alleges that IAS officer took Cabinet for a ride

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 26: Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday stayed the operation of a Government order whereby Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir Agro Industries Development Corporation (AIDC) Asif Hamid Khan had been removed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s Cabinet on August 21 and attached to General Administration Department (GAD).

The Cabinet on Friday last had sanctioned transfer of 46 senior officers, mostly from Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) and Indian Administrative Service (IAS), following which GAD had ordered Mr Khan’s attachment and his immediate replacement by Director Finance in AIDC Rakesh Khajuria. Mr Khajuria had been directed to continue on the substantive post of Director Finance while holding the additional charge of MD in the same Corporation.

Even as Khanjuria, according to the petitioner, was made to take over the charge of MD AIDC late in the light on August 21 itself and well before the Government Order No: 1139-GAD of 2015, dated 21-08-2015, was published on the GAD website, Khan challenged his removal while attributing motives to the Government Order. After hearing the parties involved, including the counsel of Khajuria who has been impleaded as a respondent, Mr Justice Mohammad Yaooq Mir of J&K High Court on Wednesday stayed the operation of the impugned order.

In his petition, Khan has claimed that his removal as MD AIDC was not in the interest of the administration but only the result of an IAS officer’s prejudice against him.  According to him, he had applied for a day’s leave but Commissioner-Secretary Agriculture Production Mohammad Ashraf Bukhari forwarded his application to Chief Secretary with the remarks that Mr Khan had applied for the casual leave only to avoid his participation in a meeting fixed for August 19. He claimed that absolutely no official meeting had been fixed on that date.

According to the petitioner, Mr Bukhari recorded on his leave application: “Mr. Asif has been avoiding attending meetings as has been apprised earlier. I had fixed a review meeting for today (August 19) and he has repeated the same behaviour by applying for casual leave. The other day I paid a surprise inspection of his office. He alongwith most of the staff was absent. I could request for his immediate shifting if the Agro has to survive”.

Khan pleaded that Bukhari, through Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday, pushed the proposal of his attachment within hours in the Cabinet meeting of August 19. However, on that day, Cabinet did not take up the agenda of administrative reshuffle.

On August 21, the IAS officers took the Cabinet for a ride and got him replaced by a tainted official of their choice who was made to assume charge of MD Agro late that night when the Government Order was yet to be posted on GAD’s website. Referring to minutes of a host of meetings, Khan pleaded that he has never remained absent from an official meeting.

“Transfer is exigency of service. Nobody can claim posting of his/her choice. Every officer/official has a right to protect his position, more so when any stigmatic situation arises which may have far-reaching effect in future. Normally orders of transfer are uninterferable but in exceptional cases indulgence is warranted”, Mr Justice Mir observed.

“Mr Rakesh Khajuria, impleaded respondent No: 4, has been simply asked to look after the work of Managing Director J&K Agro Industries Development Corporation in addition to his own duties till further orders. None of his rights may be infringed if the operation of the order dated 21-08-2015 is stayed. When the order prima facie does not appear to be in the interest of administration then the interference is the only alternative, therefore, at this stage on the strength of the documents as placed on record, strong case is carved out for indulgence, as such operation of the impugned order dated 21-08-2015 to the extent it pertains to the petitioner shall remain stayed”, Justice Mir ordered.

September 22 was fixed as the next date of hearing.

END

BR Sharma tipped to be new J&K Chief Secretary

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 25: Brij Raj Sharma, a son of soil and IAS officer of 1984 batch, is tipped to be the new Chief Secretary in Jammu and Kashmir government as some of his seniors in the hierarchy are already holding the posting of Secretary in Government of India and others are left with just a few months of service.

Besides, Mr Sharma is one of the few senior bureaucrats who has neither associated himself with any bureaucratic lobby or political party nor landed into any controversy in his 31-year-long service career.

Sharma’s officiating as cabinet secretary in the meeting on August 21 was an indication that he was being treated by Chief Minister and his Cabinet as next only to Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday.

Informed sources revealed to STATE Times that Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed would return to Srinagar from his weeklong tour of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and some other places on September 1^st and accept Mr Khanday’s application for his voluntary retirement from service. He was currently in Mumbai.

In seniority, Mr Sharma, who is currently designated as Principal Secretary and posted as administrative secretary of Planning & Development Department, figures at serial number 6 after Iqbal Khanday (IAS-1978), Arun Kumar and Sonali Kumar (IAS-1979), Ashok Kumar Angurana (IAS-1980 and Khursheed Ahmad Ganai (IAS-1982).

However, BR Sharma has the conditions in his favour as Arun Kumar is currently designated as Financial Commissioner Revenue and stands posted outside Civil Secretariat. He is left with only 16 months of service. Besides, his appointment as CS has a potential of generating a political controversy as the opposition National Conference could seek to corner PDP while raking up the history of 2008 Amarnath land row which had been triggered off with Arun Kumar’s statement that had hurt the sentiments of Muslims. Kumar had asked why nobody was raising a question over the “pollution” dropped by millions of pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia every year.

He was restored to his seat by Omar Abdullah after being off the scene for about three years.

Arun Kumar’s wife Sonali Kumar (IAS-1979) is also due to retire on November 30, 2015. She is left with just three months of service. Placed outside Civil Secretariat, Sonali is currently Chairperson J&K Special Tribunal.

Ashok Kumar Angura, who is due to reach superannuation on April 30, 2016, is currently posted as Secretary Panchayati Raj in Government of India and thus unlikely to be willing to return to his State.

Khursheed Ahmad Ganai is Mr Sharma’s only impediment as he is holding the rank equal to Chief Secretary and his posted within Civil Secretariat as FC Industries. However, he too is left with just four months of service as he is due to retire on October 31, 2015.

Mr Sharma has also age on his side. Born in April 1960, he is due to reach superannuation on April 30, 2020. If appointed Mr Khanday’s successor, Mr Sharma could have the longest tenure of almost five years as Chief Secretary.

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Miffed over ‘massacre’, Khanday quits as Chief Secretary

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 25: Developing serious differences with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led Cabinet, Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday has sought voluntary retirement from Indian Administrative Service (IAS) with effect from August 31, 2015---three months short of his date of superannuation.

“Yes, yesterday (Monday) at 11.00 a.m. I have applied for voluntary retirement from service with effect from August 31. My papers are pending with Chief Minister who is currently on tour in New Delhi”, Mr Khanday, a 1978-batch IAS officer, told STATE TIMES while confirming his resignation. He said that he would continue to attend his office till August 31.

Earlier, speaking to this correspondent over telephone Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Bharat Bhushan Vyas denied to have seen or received any such communication from the Chief Secretary. “I also heard it from different sources. I didn’t feel it appropriate to ask Khanday Sahab if he had resigned”, Vyas said.

Even as Khanday declined to reveal what exactly led to his act of applying for voluntary retirement three months ahead of his scheduled date of retirement, highly placed bureaucratic sources revealed to this correspondent that the Chief Secretary was “terribly miffed” over the last Friday’s administrative reshuffle. “He called it a massacre, asked how could the Heads of Departments, Deputy Commissioners, Secretaries to Government and Commissioner-Secretaries be shifted after every three and four months to new places of posting in gross violation of the transfer policy in vogue”, said a senior bureaucrat believed to be close to Mr Khanday.

Another highly placed IAS officer disclosed that on Thursday last, Mr Khanday had requested Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to defer the scheduled Cabinet meeting of Friday (August 21) by one week.

“It was communicated to him that the administrative reshuffle, which was the key agenda item, could not be delayed as the Cabinet was meeting with a long pause of three months. He was told that the meeting could be held in his absence. Immediately thereafter, Principal Secretary Planning & Development Mr B.R. Sharma was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for a day and it was decided to proceed with the schedule in Mr Khanday’s absence”, the senior bureaucrat said.

“On Friday, Mr Khanday stayed away on leave as his brother’s 10-day-old grandson had died. However, the government took a serious note of the fact that nobody on that day was present in Chief Secretary’s office. With the seniority, civil list and some other key records not available immediately and the General Administration Department being handicapped in absence of Chief Secretary on the day of a crucial meeting, Government in a way communicated its displeasure to Mr Khanday. Minutes after his arrival in office on Monday, Khanday tendered his resignation”.

A different well-placed bureaucratic source said that Khanday’s relationship with some ministers---both of PDP and BJP---had begun to turn sour in May when a number of his proposals were drastically changed. On one point of time, there was almost an altercation between Chief Secretary and a Cabinet Minister from South Kashmir, both asserting with their authority over certain transfers and appointments. Chief Secretary had taken “a serious note” of the humiliation a Deputy Commissioner in South Kashmir had been publicly subjected to by a Minister’s “constituency incharge” in the matter of providing accommodation to him at the district headquarters.

“The IAS lobby had complained to CS that a young boy representing a Minister had publicly threatened a DC and given him deadline of two days to give him possession of a government quarter vacated by the transfer of a Deputy SP.  Finally, a former MLC of Congress party was thrown out and the Minister’s aide accommodated. Mr Khanday was visibly upset over such developments”.

Sources said that things came to a head when Mr Khanday failed to give a prize posting to the attached KAS officer Talat Parvez Rohella. At least two Cabinet Ministers had taken exception to it that on the one hand Government had removed Rohella as Director of Tourism and ordered an inquiry into his conduct of having created unauthorised liabilities to the tune of Rs 25 crore and on the other hand same tainted official was being recommended for a key posting. In fact, some of the Ministers had even demanded registration of FIR by Vigilance Organisation against Mr Rohella, while dismissing the one-man inquiry, being conducted by Commissioner-Secretary Agriculture Production Ashraf Bukhari, as “eyewash”, aimed at giving a clean chit to the KAS officer.

The Ministers had raised a question that if the Government had declared former CEO of Sonmarg Development Authority Mohammad Yousuf “deadwood” and terminated his service for issuing building permissions to hundreds of illegal hotels, why the Director of Tourism, who functioned as Chairman of BOCA in all Tourist Development Authorities, should be spared and given a prize posting.

Same Ministers had also objected to Chief Secretary’s direction to Advocate General to get the date of a hearing of a court case preponed so that his favourites could be inducted into IAS before Mr Khanday’s own retirement on November 30, 2015.

According to the sources, Mr Khanday had gone out of way to precipitate the induction into IAS of his favourites who included KAS officers Dr Abdul Rashid (former IAS officer Jaleel Khan’s son-in-law), Mohammad Saleem Shishgar (brother of Commissioner-Secreatry GAD Gazanfar Hussain), Sheikh Fayyaz Ahmad (son of former Chief Secretary Sheikh Ghulam Rasool), KAS inductees of Technical Quota 2000, besides Talat Parvez Rohella, Anil Kumar Gupta, Rukhsana Gani (Mr Khanday’s own sister and wife of Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Dr Asgar Samoon), Rehana Batool, Zubair Ahmad (Special Secretary to Chief Secretary), Reva Kumari, Peerzada Hafizullah Shah and Mir Tariq Ali.

Sources said that Mr Khanday was unhappy when some Ministers asked him to break the old practice of bringing the administrative reshuffle as a non-agenda item during the Cabinet meeting. “They made it clear that they would attend only if the complete proposal list was provided to all Cabinet Ministers in advance. So it was first time that such a list was provided to all the Ministers ahead of the meeting”, one of the Cabinet Ministers disclosed to STATE TIMES.

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