Shah Faesal set to launch party on March 17, Shehla Rashid may join

Jammu: Former bureaucrat Shah Faesal is set to launch his own political party on Sunday. Amid speculation that he would be joining the National Conference, Faesal has been travelling through different districts in the Valley, meeting and bringing “like-minded individuals” into the fold. Among them is former JNU Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid.

Rashid, who is pursuing a PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University, is the first of many names expected to join Faesal’s political venture. She has been involved in engaging young people with the party and it remains unclear what her role in the outfit will be.

Faesal will launch his party from Srinagar. After announcing his resignation from the IAS in January, he had said that his “feedback from the ground” was against joining any existing political party and so he launched his own campaign, stating that he wanted to bring “a new vocabulary” to the politics of Jammu and Kashmir.