Former PDP leader floats new party in Kashmir

In a first major political initiative in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of article 370 on August 5, a former minister launched a new political party.
Altaf Bukhari, a former member of the People’s Democratic Party, said he was launching the Apni Party with the sole purpose of carrying out development in Jammu and Kashmir.
Several new members of the party who quit different political parties, especially, the PDP and the Congress, including Usaman Majeed, Dilawar Mir, Javid Baig, Shoiab Lone, Ajaz Khan, Rafi Mir, Vikram Malhotra, and former chief secretary Vijay Bakaya, and Ghulam Hassan Mir were present at the launch ceremony.
“Issues like self-rule and autonomy do not figure on the agenda of Apni Party,” Bukhari said. “Its sole purpose is to strive for development and politics of truth.”
Flanked by the new members, Bukhari said Apni Party will not behave like dynastic parties and the president of the party will be elected on a rotational basis.
He said he decided to form a new party to solve the problems faced by the people in the absence of a political setup after the abrogation of Article 370.
Condemning the slapping of Public Safety Act (PSA) on three former chief ministers, he said concerns should also be shown about Kashmiri youth and political workers detained under this stringent law outside Kashmir.
Asked what the party’s stand was on the revocation of the Article 370, the former finance minister said the matter was in the Supreme Court.
“If I don’t accept the abrogation of Article 370, will the decision change?” he asked. “We must wait for the Supreme Court’s decision.”
About his role being likened to former Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Ghulam Mohamed Bakshi, who stepped in after Sheikh Abdullah was jailed in 1953 by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, he said Bakshi had an economic vision, and such a vision was the dire need of the present times.
“People are facing a lot of problems, the need is to work to ease their difficulties,” he said.
“We have to do business with Delhi irrespective of who is ruling,” Bukhari added.
He said he was an individual driven by his own decisions. He said joining politics was his decision and he doesn’t follow orders from others.