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| Mufti leaves Qazi hanging | | | ET SPECIAL
Early Times Reporter
Jammu|Sep 8: Amidst a war of egos between the leaders of two coalition parties, the victim of the controversy Qazi Mohammad Afzal has nursing grouse against his own Peoples Democratic Party which has left him in a lurch.
Sources close to Qazi told EARLY TIMES that he is too keen to join back as Minister with the Housing and Urban Development Department, leaving the Forest department at disposal of the Chief Minister, but his party is making him a pawn in the chessboard of ego with the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, with Qazi's future still hanging in the balance, the CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami has thrown a new spanner by demanding an inquiry by the central probe agency into the affairs of Forest department. In a letter to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Tarigami has pointed out that considering importance of the issue, the facts should come out before the people at a time when restoration of public trust and confidence has occupied the first place in the state.
Disturbing features of the functioning of the state Forest and Environment Ministries have come to light during the past few days in the wake of recent relocation of the portfolios, he said.
Sources said that when the Chief Minister revoked the Forest portfolio of Qazi he had informed him over telephone. A source privy to the development said that Qazi was on his way to South Kashmir when he received a call from the Chief Minister. He informed his co-traveler in the car about Chief Minister's decision and "took it easy", said a source. He did not have any sentiment of hurt or revolt at that time or even the next day.
However, on coming back from Delhi, the party leaders Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba wanted Qazi to resign in protest so that Chief Minister can again be blamed for violating the guiding principles of coalition culture. Even though the Chief Minister relented, after a couple of days, asking Qazi to join back but the party decided to mount pressure.
The last word from the PDP is that the Chief Minister will have to discuss the issue with the party leadership as why they were not taken into confidence. However, the Chief Minister does not seem in any mood to discuss this matter with the PDP leadership after he made the issue clear through a letter to Qazi.
With no meeting between the Chief Minister and the PDP leadership and Mufti having left for America to attend a conference, Qazi Afzal's fate as a minister has gone into indefinite uncertainty.
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