Shah Faesal gets first prominent leader into his party fold in PDP’s Javaid Mustafa Mir

india

Updated: Mar 28, 2019 00:17 IST

Former Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) senior leader Javaid Mustafa Mir on Wednesday joined the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Movement (JKPM) led by bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal.

Mir is the first prominent leader from mainstream politics to join Faesal’s party after it was launched on March 17.

Mir, who was a senior leader in the PDP and was once a revenue minister, said they have come together to try something different than “traditional politics”.

“A person should not be power-centric, ones intention should be clear. One should not be like that he would reach power adopting whatever ways. We have come into politics and we will try to do something different than traditional politics,” Mir said after joining at JKPM headquarters at Rajbagh.

“We should think about the self respect of our younger generation. If we are pushed; why are we pushed,” he said.

Mir, who represented central Kashmir’s Chadoora assembly constituency, resigned from the PDP in January dealing a blow to the party. He was among the six legislators, including Imran Raza Ansari, Haseeb Drabu, and Basharat Bukhari, who left the PDP after it lost power in June after the BJP pulled out of the coalition government.

Faesal welcomed Mir into the party fold and wanted to learn from the political experience of Mir.

“It is a historic day for JKPM when a famous political personality of the Valley is joining us. Javaid Mustafa Mir has been active in public life for past 20 years. He has been a legislator thrice and has also served as a revenue minister,” Faesal said.

“We know he can go to any extent for his constituency but despite serving as an MLA and minister for 20 years, nobody has raised a finger on his integrity and honesty. This motivated us to benefit from his huge political experience,” he said.

Shah Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper from Jammu and Kashmir who resigned from the bureaucracy in January, launched Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Movement in Srinagar at a public rally on March 17 during which prominent student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Shehla Rashid had also joined. Faesal had resigned to protest the “unabated killings in Kashmir and the absence of credible political initiative from the Centre”.

The party has decided not to contest the coming parliamentary elections starting April 11.

Feasal said they will contest in the assembly elections.

“The idea of not contesting parliamentary elections was not basically to gain more time... the issue was that we had just announced the party. As for the assembly elections, we are going to fight even if they are announced tomorrow,” he said.