In a bid to create an alternative regional outfit in theUnion territory, former J&K Finance Minister Altaf Bukhari on Sundayannounced a new political party, Jammu Kashmir Apni Party, inducting knownfaces from other groups especially the PDP.
The new party’s core agenda would be the restoration Jammuand Kashmir’s statehood and its residents’ domicile rights on land and jobs,said Bukhari, who was elected J-KAP’s president.
Bukhari, who represented the city’s Amirakadal constituencyin the last assembly of the erstwhile state, told reporters at a pressconference at his residence here that his party would be different from otherparties as it was not floated by families an apparent reference to the NationalConference and PDP.
Several former ministers and legislators joined the new outfit and were seen with Bukhari at the presser.
The prominent faces included former minister and PDPfounding member Ghulam Hassan Mir, former minister and PDP general secretaryDilawar Mir and former ministers Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ahmad, Mohammad Ahsraf Mir,Abdul Majeed Paddar, Aijaz Ahmad Khan and Usman Majeed besides former chiefsecretary and ex-NC MLC Vijay Bakaya.
Bukhari said the party was an outfit “of the commoners, by the commoners and for the commoners”. We have resolved to create a viable, political platform that functions in accordance with the wishes of people and where the people are the real stakeholders of the political process, he said, naming the political party as Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (J-KAP).