JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's cinematographer brother Tassaduq Hussain Mufti and PDP MLA Javed Mustafa Mir were on Thursday inducted as ministers in the state cabinet.
Governor N N Vohra administered the oath of office and secrecy to Tassaduq and Javaid at Raj Bhawan in Jammu, the winter capital of the State, this afternoon.
The induction of two new faces in the cabinet necessitated changes in portfolios of some PDP ministers.
The Chief Minister allotted Tourism portfolio to her brother Tassaduq while Javed was given portfolios of Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction and Floriculture departments.
The PDP Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri was divested of Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation & Reconstruction portfolios and now will like after Revenue, Parliamentary Affairs and Hajj and Auqaf.
Tassaduq, 45, who is better known for his cinematography in Bollywood movies Omkara and Kaminey, joined the active politics on January 7 this year, which was the first death anniversary of his father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
After joining politics, he was appointed as coordinator of Chief Minister's Grievance Cell by the Mehbooba government.
He, however, resigned as head of the cell a fortnight back and was subsequently nominated as a member of J&K Legislative Council by Governor last week on the seat vacated by Vikramaditya Singh after his resignation from the PDP and the upper house of the State legislature.
Tassaduq would be taking oath as MLC during the budget session of State Assembly beginning on January 2, 2018.
Tassaduq, who holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the American Center, was also PDP candidate for the deferred bypolls to Anantnag-Pulwama parliamentary seat. The bypolls for the seat was scheduled to be held in April this year but was canceled after large-scale violence during bypolls to Srinagar parliamentary seat on April 9 this year.
Javed, who was also inducted in the cabinet today, is a senior PDP leader and MLA. He had earlier served as a revenue minister in Mufti Sayeed led PDP-BJP coalition government but was dropped as minister after Mehbooba took over as chief minister of the State on April 4 last year following death of her father.
Earlier, last week Mehbooba’s uncle and former minister of state Farooq Andrabi had resigned from the council of ministers to pave way for cabinet expansion.
With the induction of two PDP ministers in the cabinet today, the party has exhausted its quota of ministers while its coalition partner BJP has already exhausted its share in the Ministry.
The PDP now has 14 ministers including Chief Minister and BJP 11 ministers including deputy chief minister.
As per Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, there can be maximum of 25 ministers (20 per cent of the total strength of both houses of the legislature).
It was the second expansion in the council of ministers this year after Mehbooba formed coalition government with BJP and became the first woman chief minister of the State in April last year.
Earlier this year, PDP inducted party heavyweight and MLA Altaf Bukhari into the cabinet as Education minister.
Tassaduq trolled for swearing in the name of 'dog'
After the oath-taking ceremony, Tassaduq was trolled on social media for fumbling with the word during the oath-taking ceremony.
While taking the oath delivered by Governor Vohra, Tassaduq pronounced god as "dog" but corrected himself immediately by pronouncing the “god” rightly.
Opposition National Conference spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu shared the video on his Facebook page with the caption, "I Tassaduq Hussain Mufti, swear in the name of DOG"?!?!?? Befitting start! God help the departments his sister will gift to him. God help J&K! ."
A netizen Daanish Bin Nabi posted on Twitter, “#Dog the new entrant - Colors of Kashmir politics.”
Another netizen, Raja Muneeb posted on Twitter, “Oops! That’s a costly slip of tongue. What was he thinking”.