National Conference on Thursday said the PDP was guided by a singular goal of empowering a single family while lording over the complete ruination of the State and its resources. Addressing a Party Workers’ Convention at Bandipora in North Kashmir, National Conference Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani said the inclusion of the CM’s brother into the State Cabinet was a cruel joke with the people of the State who continue to suffer with each passing day due to the political and administrative failures of the PDP-BJP Government led by Mehbooba Mufti.
Senior National Conference Leader and North Zone President, Muhammad Akbar Lone besides Party Leaders including Provincial Secretary Advocate Showkat Ahmed Mir, Former MLA Bandipora Ghulam Rasool Naz, Muhammad Abdullah Wani, Advocate Nazir Ahmed Malik, District President YNC Dr. Abdul Hameed, Youth Leader Sameer Iqbal in addition to Party Block Presidents and Block Secretaries were also present on the occasion and addressed the convention.
“Ever since its inception, PDP has been guided by the singular goal of seeking political power while being bereft of any ideological convictions. This party bartered its mandate and sold its conscience to the BJP in 2015 only to secure the Chief Minister’s chair for Late Mufti Sahab, followed by Mehbooba Mufti. Today PDP has carried on this trend of deceit for self-seeking ambitions by elevating a practically unknown entity to the State Cabinet after the gentleman, facing imminent defeat, literally ran away from the Anantnag Parliamentary Elections and then went on to seek a place of extra-constitutional power in the Civil Secretariat as the appointed head of the CM’s Grievance Cell”, the NC Provincial President said in his address.
The NC Provincial President while questioning the qualifications and political experience of Tassaduq Mufti said his history of jumping from one opportunity to another spoke about his priorities and mindset. “He ran away from the Anantnag Election and now he has run away from the CM’s Grievance Cell after his stentorian rhetoric and theatrics. He has spent the last year or more developing a coterie of young businessmen and together with them interfered in the transfer processes of the Government at the highest levels. In his elevation, the same coterie of young businessmen are being empowered with unbridled powers to wreak havoc with administrative neutrality while being granted a backdoor access to the resources of the State”, the NC Provincial President added.
“The divisions in PDP have never been more acute and irreconcilable. People who sacrificed for decades to make the PDP and have won multiple elections have been ignored to promote through the backdoor a person who hardly anyone knew even existed before his Late father became the Chief Minister in 2015. These PDP leaders have been humiliated by their own party. One can only sympathise with them and hope against hope that they aren’t humiliated any further”, Nasir Aslam Wani said while speaking at Bandipora.
Lashing out at the State Government for rampant corruption and misgovernance in the State, Senior NC Leader and Former Minister Muhammad Akbar Lone said the PDP-BJP Government had pushed the State into a new era of instability and turmoil due to its abject surrender to those forces that have always been inimical to the interests of the State and its people. “While the State Government has absolutely no control over the deteriorating Law and Order situation in the State, the announcement to hold Panchayat Elections in the biting cold of February exposes the scope and depth of their disconnect with ground realities. How does the Government propose to conduct Panchayat Elections in far-flung areas and upper-reaches of the State in February while most of these areas will be snowbound with severe, hostile weather? It seems the Government is either completely disconnected and running on auto-pilot or is deliberately planning to suppress the turnout in the Panchayat Elections. Whatever their ulterior motive, it is amply clear that this Government remains as clueless today as it was in its first year in power”, Muhammad Akbar Lone said while addressing the workers’ convention
Addressing the party workers, the NC Provincial President congratulated the party workers for the continued success of the Party’s outreach initiatives across the length and breadth of the State and said National Conference was the only vanguard of the State’s political honour and dignity and would continue to fight against those forces that are working hard to fragment and weaken the State.