J&K minister Altaf Bukhari given additional charge of finance department
Srinagar, Mar 13 (IBNS): Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari was given additional charge of the finance ministry on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had sacked Haseeb Drabu as Finance Minister after the latter termed Kashmir as a social and not a political issue.
According to reports, the Chief Minister after deliberations with her party leaders, decided to give additional charge of Finance to Altaf Bukhari.
An order issued on Tuesday by Mehbooba Mufti, read: “In pursuance of Rule 5 of Jammu and Kashmir government Business rules and as an interim measure, I Mehbooba Mufti, do hereby assign the charge of the departments of the Finance, Labour and Employment to Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari in addition to the government business already assigned to him.”
Drabu had landed in a controversy over his reported statement in a conference in New Delhi on Saturday that Kashmir “isn’t a political issue” but a society with “social issues”.
“It (J&K) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it, that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself,” Drabu was quoted saying at the function organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
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