Altaf Bukhari given additional charge of finance ministry

Bukhari was given charge of the department of finance as well as labour and employment as an interim measure.

SRINAGAR: Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammed Altaf Bukhari has been given additional charge of the finance ministry today, a day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti removed Dr Haseeb Drabu from the minister post over his controversial remark that Kashmir was not a political issue.

A notification signed on behalf of the CM Mehbooba Mufti said that the present Education minister Bukhari was given charge of the department of finance as well as labour and employment as an interim measure.

Drabu, 57, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, was sacked yesterday following his remark that the Kashmir issue was not a political issue.

Drabu while speaking at an event themed ‘Kashmir: the way forward’ in New Delhi on March 9, had said that Jammu and Kashmir should not be seen as a conflict state or a political problem, but as a society with social issues.