Months After CM's Reappointment Ban, J&K Speaker's Cousin Named Tourism Consultant

Srinagar: A close relative of Jammu and Kashmir assembly speaker and senior National Conference (NC) leader Abdul Rahim Rather has been appointed by the administration as a “consultant” in the tourism department, The Wire has learnt. The relative retired from service last month.

The appointment seems to be in violation of the directions of the chief minister Omar Abdullah who had called for a “complete ban” on “re-employment…and extensions, except in extraordinary circumstances” of the retired government officers during a meeting in December last year.

The order to appoint Mushtaq Ahmed Rather, a Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officer and a cousin of former finance minister of J&K, Abdul Rahim Rather, was issued by J&K’s general administration department (GAD) on April 4 under Government Order No. 440-JK(GAD) of 2025.

“Sanction is hereby accorded to the engagement of Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, JKAS (Rtd.) as Consultant in the Tourism Department, on contractual basis,” the GAD order said, adding that the officer, who retired on March 31, was being appointed for one year.

“The terms and conditions as per order in engagement are…terminable on one month’s notice from either side; pay of the officer shall be fixed in terms of Article 259-A of the J&K CSRS (civil service rules) and the officer shall, in the matters of discipline, appeal and conduct, be governed by the rules as are applicable to the Government employees,” the order said.

The order was issued less than five months after Abdullah directed the GAD to stop the practice of reemploying retired officials which he had said "hampered the growth of deserving officers and leads to resentment and stagnation within departments.”

The Wire reached out to the chief minister about the appointment who asked to contact M. Raju, commissioner secretary of GAD which issued the order. The officer however didn’t respond to calls and text messages. As J&K is a Union territory, Raju, a 2005 batch Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officer of AGMUT cadre, like other IAS officers, reports to the Lieutenant Governor.

Repeated phone calls and texts to the speaker Rather and the ruling party chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq got no response. This story will be updated as and when a response is received.

Skill issue

A senior officer in J&K’s law department said that the government was empowered under rules to appoint consultants “to tap the skills which are not available” within the officers already working in the government.

“They are not appointed to undertake the general work of the departments,” he said, adding: “By definition, a consultant can’t be a retired government employee.

According to sources, the JKAS officer in question lives in Badipora village of Budgam district, where Rather also comes from. Sources also said that the officer had been inducted into J&K’s elite service – he joined as a non-gazetted employee and did not join after writing the entrance exam. The sources said that he has no prior experience in the tourism sector.

He was posted in Srinagar as a programme officer in the social welfare department when he retired on March 31 this year.

Sources said that his reappointment has led to severe indignation within the administration as it comes at a time when Jammu and Kashmir is reeling from high unemployment.

The GAD, which issued the controversial appointment order, was recently in the news after it issued a transfer order of several senior JKAS officers without taking the chief minister on board. Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, who had green lighted the transfer order, defended the move, saying he had acted within the limits of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019.

'Shocking'

Former J&K minister Naeem Akhtar, who served as a senior officer in the tourism department before joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said that although the rules empowered the government to appoint consultants on contract basis, the GAD order was “shocking illustration” of the senior NC leader “using his role in big political sellout for petty personal reason”.

“The Speaker is in the middle of a balancing act that fortifies the erasure and disempowerment of Jammu and Kashmir post 2019. He has a crucial role from his high seat in normalising what has been done to us. In the process, he is marring the careers of our younger generation,” he said.

Akhtar, a senior leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told The Wire that during his tenure in the government service, no officer was recalled to the government within a fortnight after their retirement.

“This is a brazen display of nepotism at a time when our youngsters are struggling to find jobs,” he said.

Transparency

Following the reading down of Article 370, Rather was in the eye of a storm after his son, Hilal Rather, was arrested by J&K’s Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2020 in a Rs 177 crore alleged bank fraud case. He was later granted bail by the court and the case was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Senior J&K Bhartiya Janta Party leader Ashok Kaul said that the reappointment of the retired officer has raised serious concerns about the lack of transparency in the government led by Abdullah.

“There is no dearth of highly educated and intelligent youth in Jammu and Kashmir. It is an unfortunate decision which should not have been taken in the first place. The government should come clean on the issue and revoke the order,” Kaul, who is BJP’s state general secretary (org), said.

Criticising the chief minister, PDP leader and Pulwama legislator Waheed Para said that while Abdullah claimed to be fighting for the restoration of J&K’s statehood, his government was “busy in rehabilitating the relatives of party leaders”.

“The government can’t transfer the officers in the administration but it faces no problems when it comes to rehabilitating the relatives of NC leaders. That the retired officer has been given a key posting in the tourism sector, which is being vandalised in the name of development, raises a lot of suspicions,” Para, who is also Youth PDP president, said.

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