Faesal may re-join administrationb if he can’t go study abroad, says new interim party president

Srinagar: Feroz Peerzada, the new interim president of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM), told Kashmir Reader that Shah Faesal is planning to study abroad, or join the administration if he fails to secure a fellowship to study abroad.
“Shah Faesal told me that he will go abroad, but if he fails he may join the administration,” Peerzada said.
No sooner than Faesal quit as president of the JKPM, Javaid Mustafa Mir, former PDP minister who joined the JKPM, also called it a day.
Mir did not respond to calls from this newspaper.
“No doubt it a setback. The party moved around Shah, who was everything to it. But we will work to survive, to keep the party alive. There are challenges but we will give it a try,” Peerzada said.
Faesal had told BBC before his arrest that the scope of mainstream parties was over after the abrogation of Article 370. He was arrested soon after the interview.
Peerzada while speaking to Kashmir Reader echoed the same sentiment. “The scope of politics is over in Kashmir as of now,” he said.
The JKPM will not contest elections till statehood is restored, he said, a stand similar to other pro-India parties in Kashmir.
“The chief minister of a union territory is like a deputy commissioner. We will seek people’s opinion about our politics. As of now, we are saying nothing on Article 370 because the case is sub-judice,” Peerzada said.
Just like Faesal, former student leader Shehla Rashid also called it quits. She told Kashmir Reader that there is nothing left to do for the part after abrogation of Article 370.
“Before my resignation, a decision about block-level elections was to be taken. There was no such scene happening on the ground. I tried to meet Shah Faesal at his detention center, but was not allowed. Through a third person, he told me to stay quiet. There was nothing left. It would have been betrayal to be there,” she said.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz