E-Paper
PDP appoints Mehbooba’s daughter Iltija Mufti as her media adviser
PDP chief spokesperson Syed Suhail Bukhari said that Iltija has been in-charge of Mehbooba Mufti’s social media since 2019
In what is considered her formal dab into politics, Iltija Mufti, daughter of Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, was appointed as media adviser to the party chief on Wednesday.
PDP chief spokesperson Syed Suhail Bukhari said that Iltija has been in-charge of Mehbooba Mufti’s social media since 2019.
“Iltija emerged as a leading voice and a vociferous critic of Union government’s decision to illegally abrogate Article 370 at a time when Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream leaders were put behind bars,” he said in a statement.
Iltija Mufti (35) emerged on the scene when her mother was detained by the government ahead of the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019.
By mid-August in 2019, when everything was shut, communications barred and restrictions on roads, she wrote a bold letter to Union home minister Amit Shah as to why she was under detention.
She was allowed to move out of the Valley where she approached Supreme Court seeking permission to meet her mother, which was ultimately granted.
During her mother’s detention, she was vocal on social media using the twitter account of her mother to criticise the actions of government in J&K, particularly the revocation of its special status.
She gave interviews to news channels and newspapers, taking on the Union government and Bharatiya Janata Party. She was stopped from visiting the grave of her grandfather and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed on his death anniversary.
She had filed habeas corpus petition in Supreme Court challenging the detention of her mother Mehbooba Mufti under Public Safety Act (PSA).
Articulate and bold, she has graduated in political science from Delhi University and has done masters in international relations from Waruick University in United Kingdom.
Elder of the two sisters, Iltija has been mostly brought up by her mother owing to the estrangement of her father, Javed Iqbal Shah, a businessman and briefly a National Conference leader.
“If I had to come into politics, I would have come in my grandfather’s time. I don’t think I will join politics. But then looking back, I think life is very unpredictable, what will happen tomorrow nobody can say. I had never imagined the things I am doing currently,” she said to HT in 2020.
