Former J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu quits PDP

Jammu, Dec 6: Former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu on Thursday announced his resignation from the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Taking to Twitter, Drabu said he had been distancing himself from party affairs for some time now, though his resignation from his ministerial post and the party two years back had been rejected.

"Even though I have not been a dissident, you are aware I had resigned from the Cabinet, Assembly and the party nearly two years ago, which you didn't accept. I have disengaged myself from party affairs for quite some time now. It was ethically and morally wrong to leave the party under whose aegis one has contested and won the seat in the Legislative assembly. Now that it is over, I am hereby resigning from the J&K PDP," reads the resignation letter of Mr. Drabu, who served J&K as Finance Minister during the PDP-BJP regime.

Drabu had been dropped from the government in March 2018, months before the PDP-BJP coalition alliance broke down.

The relations between Drabu and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti soured in March this year when the former delivered a lecture in New Delhi and called "Kashmir a social and not a political issue". Mufti later dropped him from the Cabinet.

The former minister hoped that when history judges 'Mufti sahib' and his decision to ally with the BJP, it would be done in the context and with the complexity it deserves.

He signed off the letter wishing PDP the best. "May it contribute to the resolution of the long pending political issue, help in bringing about social order, peace and prosperity in the state."