by Yawar Hussain
SRINAGAR: With political realignment being the current trend among Kashmiri political leaders, two former parliamentarians of the Peoples Democratic Party have come out to criticize the internal functioning while hinting at a possible exit from the party.
Nazir Laway and Mir Mohammad Fayaz, who were in Kupwara on Sunday, shared the stage with Yasir Reshi who parted ways with the PDP earlier this month.
Laway, who was a Rajya Sabha member and 2014 party candidate from the Kulgam assembly segment, has been at loggerheads with the party ever since he attended the swearing-in ceremony of the first-ever Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after Article 370 was abrogated.
In Kupwara, Laway said that he isn’t part of the PDP anymore as the party has sacked him already.
“Our future alignment will be known to everyone in coming days,” Laway said, adding that he along with Fayaz and Reshi were with PDP only because of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Laway was sacked in 2019 through a press communiqué when PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was under detention following the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A. Back then Laway had claimed that
Meanwhile, as per sources in the Peoples Conference headed by Sajad Lone, Laway has been holding parleys with the party leadership.
Sources said Laway met Sajad Lone on Monday just before Basharat Bukhari, Khurshid Alam and Peer Mansoor joined the party.
As per sources he along with Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Yasir Reshi are going to join the PC.
Fayaz in his speech in Kupwara lashed out at the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration terming that it was never united on the ground.
“When Farooq Abdullah was called for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate, every PAGD member criticized it but when Mehbooba Mufti was questioned, nobody even raised an eyebrow,” Fayaz said while pointing out the differences within PAGD.
He said Basharat Bukhari and he had only spoken out against the PAGD because the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been suffering for the past 70 years.
“PAGD was a joke like many other such things which Kashmiri people have encountered for many years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yasir Reshi, a former lawmaker who left PDP last week, said that the trio would be taking a collective decision on their future.
On reports of joining PC, Reshi said, “PC is an old party with a long history. The coming in of Muzzafar Hussain Baig has boosted them. We will take a call soon.”
A top leader in the PC claimed that two National Conference leaders from the south and central Kashmir are also likely to join the party in the coming days.
