Former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah was shown exit from scam-hit Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) following a controversial election that appointed Youth Services and Sports Minister Imran Raza Ansari as the new president of the cricketing body.
Though Abdullah received a breather from a lower court in Jammu that stayed the functioning of new office bearers, the Ansari’s team started working from the JKCA head office in Srinagar.
Abdullah ouster is seen as PDP-BJP coalition’s first major effort to minimize Opposition National Conference’s (NCs) sway on important institutions involving finances and public dealing. He was the JKCA President since 2001 and continued to hold the post despite his name figured in a multi-crore scam in 2012.
On Monday, a Government sponsored dissident faction of affiliate club members met and held elections under the supervision of senior J&K officers including Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Directors General of Police and Youth Services departments. “Out of 64 club members, 46 participated in the elections and elected Imran Ansari as the new President”, Mehboob Iqbal, a former bureaucrat-turned PDP politician said. Iqbal was himself elected as Chairman of the JKCA.
However, hours after JKCA elections in Srinagar, a court in Jammu approached by a senior lawyer on behalf of ousted office bearers, put a stay on the outcome of election results. “Any decision if taken in the JKCA meeting today shall remain in abeyance till further orders,” Arvinder Singh langeh, Excise Magistrate (Jammu) said in his verdict.
Ansari, one of the youngest PDP Ministers in Mufti Sayeed’s cabinet said that the court verdict will have no bearing on the functioning of the new body that he claimed was elected according to the JKCA constitution. “In fact, we have started functioning from today (Monday). All the new office bearers assumed offices. The finances and accounts were taken over”, Ansari told The Pioneer.