Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance in the State, was on Monday unceremoniously removed from the Council of Ministers by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti over his rem-arks that the Kashmir issue was not a political one, officials said.

Mehbooba, who returned from the national Capital to Jammu on Monday, shot off a letter to Governor NN Vohra requesting him to drop Drabu from her Council of Ministers with immediate effect, PDP sources said.

The Governor, after examining the letter, wrote back to the CM conveying his nod to her request to drop 57-year-old Drabu from her Council of Ministers, officials said.

Since Sunday, pressure was mounting on Drabu, who played a key role in stitching an alliance with the BJP during Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s tenure earlier and again when Mehbooba Mufti became the CM, after newspapers published his remarks that people were “barking up the wrong tree” as the Kashmir issue was not a political issue.

“It (JK) 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 had said at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on Friday.

Following the sudden development, the State Cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday was deferred by a week. “J&K State Cabinet meeting which was scheduled to be held tomorrow at 12.30 pm has been postponed. It will be now be held on March 20, 2018 at 11 am,” J&K’s Department of Information and Public Relations tweeted.

With Drabu out of the Finance Ministry, the race for the coveted portfolio began with Mehbooba’s trusted aide and Works Minister Naeem Akhtar and Education Minister Altaf Bukhari being seen as front-runners.

Sources indicated that while Bukhari may land the job eventually, the CM might retain the finance portfolio for the time being. The PDP had on Sunday asked Drabu to retract his statement as it was against the party’s stand.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 | PTI | Srinagar