OBITUARY
Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, a popular leader, religious scholar, fiery orator, politician and a businessman belonged to a respected spiritual family of Kashmir. In Kashmir Shia Muslims are divided mainly into two groups i.e. Qadimis and Jadidis. Ansaris are known as Qadmis as they were the first to arrive in Kashmir to preach Islam. Born in Khanqah-e-Sokhta Srinagar on April 26, 1940 he succeeded his father Molvi Mohammad Jawad as president of Shia Association in 1962 at young age. In 1958, he was admitted in Sultanul Madaris Lucknow for religious education where from he obtained a high degree called Sadarullah Fazili. After passing the Arabic and Persian examination from UP Board, he was sent to Najaf-e-Ashraf Iraq for higher studies in Islamic Jurisprudence where he studied Islamic Theology from the great scholars and mujtahids of the times Aqae Shahrudi, Aqae Raza Gulpaygani, Ayatullah Mohsin Hakeem till 1968. In addition to Kashmiri, he had a good hold over Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English. Moulana Iftikhar was associated with politics in different ways soon afterwards. He started his career with Action Committee and joined State People’s Convention convened by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1969.
In 1972 when the State Congress Govt was headed Syed Mir Qasim, Molvi Iftikhar was nominated for Legislative Council. However, in 1976, he resigned from Congress and participated in election from Srinagar Constituency as independent candidate against Begum Sheikh Abdullah. In 1977, when emergency was declared in the country and new elections were conducted, Moulvi Iftikhar joined Janta Party and contested election from Pattan, but he did not succeed. He won from the same constituency in 1983 and 1996 and in 1996 and became the Minister of Housing and Urban Development under the Ministry of Dr. Farooq Abdullah. He won from the same constituency also on NC Ticket in 2002 and then on PDP ticket in 2008. He remained three times as the state cabinet minister. At present he was the vice president of PDP. His residence always used to be flooded by his followers and disciples from every dimension of the state. In addition to religion and politics, he was a successful businessman as well. He was the owner of Ansari Motors and Ansari Toyota. He recently had taken over as the chairman of Imam Hussain (a.s) Hospital and Medical College Bemina. Iftikhar Ansari was suffering from cancer for a long time and during this he underwent treatment in the US as well. He was nominated as the party candidate for the forthcoming assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, but alas death could not allow him more.
Er. Irfan Ali Banka
Mallabuchan
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
ACT NOW |
MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |