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| Dr Shafi Ahmed Wani, Doctor turned politician at 55 | | |
Sandeep Bhat
Dr. Shafi Ahmed Wani of Peoples Democratic Party is coming to the Legislative Assembly for first time at the age of 55 years. Winning by a water thin margin of around 200 votes over National Conference candidate Abdul Majid Matoo, Shafi has not only won an election but also a challenge for the party. PDP's sitting legislative had rebelled and his son Nazir Khan, one of founder members of the party, was in fray as independent candidate. Nazir, however, finished third.
Mohammad Sarfaraz Khan of Peoples Democratic Party was declared elected from this seat in 2002 elections when he defeated his nearest National Conference rival Mohammad Amir Banday by a margin of 11,920 votes. Mr. Khan polled 16,886 while as Banday received 4,966 votes. Sarfaraz, however, continued to revolt intermittently against the party leadership till last elections. Dr Shafi interacted with ET correspondent in office. Some of the excerpts.
Born in Mazhama (Kanihama) Dr. Shafi came back from middle east in 1990 and was posted in Tangmarg from 1990 to 1997 and served the people in that area when no other doctor was available during the militancy period. Almost all the doctors got migrated to other places of the country and world which include both the Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslim doctors. Before coming back to Kashmir Dr Shafi served in different countries like Iran, Soudi Arabia, UAE (Dubai), Bulgaria, Singapore, United States and other countries. Dr Shafi did his PG in New Delhi. He also worked in top institutions of the country like Lal Bahadur, Staff college and did different courses like health management, health care, communication apart from working for three years on WHO project in Jammu. His last posting was as CMO Ganderbal in 2008 before got mandate from PDP to contests assembly elections from Beerwah constituency defeating his nearest National Conference rival by a wafer thin margin. He was never active in politics before elected as MLA and remained at his own place where he served the people. As far as his constituency is concerned, Beerwah is most backward area comprising of 130 villages including 3 blocks and 2 tehsils. It starts from Sozeth to Khag than to Beerwah and upto Budgam. Narbal, Magam, Beerwah and Khag are some important places in Beerwah constituency. Our constituency is birth place of Kanishawls. In upper area of Beerwah walnut is produced in large quantity and Tosmaidan is one of the beautiful place apart from Abhinav cave, Pushkar, Kanihama, Makama (Ziarat), Narsbab Sahab are some historical places. 75% of the people in my constituency depend upon agriculture and the rest on handicrafts and others. There is no health facilities, no proper road, no drinking water facilities and shortage of electricity. There are more than 10 villages without electricity, 30 villages with no roads and other with no proper drinking water facilities. There is abundance of water resources in our area like Sukhnag, Nalay Koley Dara, Nalay Main Nar which can be properly utilized and can generate electricity. My dream is to open a women college in Magam, 24 hrs service hospital, avenues for youth, proper sports ground improve the quality of education, involvement of women, girls in education, health and handicrafts and other various areas to remove gender disparity. My priority will remain on the educational sector, health, roads, water, electricity, sustenance and development of handicrafts. The present coalition government is not delivering as was expected by the people of the state. You see the employees are on warpath, the stone pelting incidents in the valley, frustration among the youngsters are growing day by day. This is the inefficiency of the government which cannot give justice to the people. Mufti Mohd Sayed is a visionary leader and People Democratic Party (PDP) represents the aspirations and the sentiments of the people of all the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir state.
Electoral Background
Beerwah constituency was
represented by Abdul Qadoos Azad on National Conference ticket in 1957 and as a Congress candidate in 1967. In 1962, Syed Abdul Qadoos of National Conference won this seat. Abdul Khaliq Mir of Congress got elected from here in 1972 while as Syed Ahmad Saeed of National conference represented this constituency in 1977, 1983 and 1987 elections. This seat was won by Aga Syed Mehmood of National Conference in 1996. As it can be seen from the trends, the National Conference has been a clear winner here from 1977 to 1996 and therefore its loss to the Peoples Democratic Party in 2002 elections was quite serious. |
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