Dr Farooq Abdullah offers piece of advice to Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar, Aug 31: Amid intensified war of words between the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the assembly election time, NC President Dr Farooq Abdullah today had a “piece of advice for Mehboob Mufti.”

The advice is: “Do not raise fingers at others as it will not serve any purpose. Walk on your path and think good about the country and its safety.”

The NC President gave the piece of advice to Mehbooba while talking to media persons after paying obeisance at the shrine of Hazrat Hamza Makhdoom Sahab (RA). He also welcomed the participation of some former members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) in assembly elections and congratulated them for it.

Dr Farooq said that he prayed at the shrine for the peace, communal harmony, and development of the country.

He also appealed to the people to take due care of minorities here and said communal harmony and co-existence are very important in the country having so much diversity.

When asked by media persons about PDP President Mehbooba Mufti's recent allegations against NC, Dr Farooq said, “I pray to Allah to keep her (Mehbooba) safe and well. I do not want to talk about what she said. But I request her to walk on her path and not point fingers at others. Raising fingers at others does not serve any purpose. She must think about what is good for the country and how it can be saved."

Mehbooba recently said that it was NC, which made the assembly polls “haraam” for the banned Jamaat-e-Islami by rigging the elections in 1987.

For the last several days, the war of words between Mehbooba and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah has intensified.

Omar had recently taken a dig at the ex-leaders of banned JeI for describing the elections as "haraam" in the past and now describing it as "halaal" and fielding independent candidates. Mehbooba hit back at Omar saying it was his party which started this "halaal" and "haraam" thing. “From 1947 to 1953, the elections were halal for NC. But as its government was toppled in 1953, these very elections became 'haraam' for the party. They raised other slogans. After 22 years, these polls became 'halaal' again for NC as the party got the power back,” she said.

Earlier, the PDP President had indirectly attacked the NC Vice President for deciding to contest assembly polls after earlier claiming that he would not contest. “Earlier, Omar Sahab used to say that he would not contest because if he becomes the chief minister he cannot transfer even a peon and has to request the Lieutenant Governor for that,” Mehbooba said. She claimed that she was a powerful chief minister during the PDP-BJP coalition government. “Now by disempowering the chief minister by its orders, the central government has made J&K chief minister like the chief minister of a municipality.

And I will not contest the assembly polls," she said. However, the PDP President stated that her party will contest. "My party will contest and fight for whatever little political space has been left for us," she said.

Reacting to it, Omar said that some leaders are saying that they will not contest since it is a weak assembly. "But on the other side these very leaders are giving mandates to their daughters and relatives," he said.

Mehbooba's daughter Iltija Mufti is contesting from the Bijbehara assembly constituency.

About Mehbooba's view that the NC-Congress poll is only for seat sharing and not on any agenda, Omar said, “She should first talk about the PDP-BJP coalition government and apologise to people for joining hands with BJP and bringing that party to J&K. Then she should talk about our alliance.”