Srinagar: Education Minister Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari was given additional charge of the finance ministry on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti axed Haseeb Drabu from the post over his remark that Kashmir was not a political issue, officials said.

A notification signed on behalf of the chief minister said Bukhari, one of the founding members of the PDP, was given charge of the department of finance as well as labour and employment as an interim measure.

“In pursuance of Rule 5 of the Jammu and Kashmir Government Business Rules and as an interim measure, I, Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister, Jammu and Kashmir, do here by assign the charge of the Departments of Finance, Labour &Employment to Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari in addition to the Government Business already assigned to him,” said an order issued by the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti here today.

The order has been issued is in partial modification of Order No: 427-GAD of 2018 dated: 12.03.2018 wherein the charge of the Finance, Labour & Employment departments was assigned to the Chief Minister.

Up till now, Altaf Bukhari was heading Education Ministry, including School and Higher education departments. Bukhari headed R&B minister during the tenure of Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister of present coalition government.

An agriculture graduate, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari represents Amira Kadal, constituency of Srinagar, in the state legislative assembly.

Drabu, 57, one of the architects of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, was sacked yesterday following his remark that people were “barking up the wrong tree” as the Kashmir issue was not a political issue.

“It (JK) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it; that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself,” Drabu had said at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on Friday.

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