Syed Altaf Bukhari

Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari is an Indian politician hailing from Jammu and Kashmir. He is the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, a political organization, which he launched in 2020. He served as the member of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2018, representing the defunct Amira Kadal Assembly constituency. He served as the education minister of Jammu and Kashmir and later assumed the additional responsibility of the Finance, Labour and Employment ministry.

Early life and education He holds a Bachelor's degree in Agricultural science from Government Agriculture College in Wadura-Sopore, obtained in 1980 through Kashmir University. His father, Syed Mohammad Iqbal Bukhari, was a noted businessman and the founder of FIL Industries.

Career In 2014, Altaf Bukhari won the assembly election from the Amira Kadal Assembly constituency, representing the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party. Subsequently, in 2015, he was appointed as Roads and Buildings minister However, upon Sayeed's death in 2016, Bukhari was not included in the cabinet when Mehbooba Mufti assumed office.

A delegation led by the minister for Education Altaf Bukhari meeting the union minister for HRD, Prakash Javadekar, in New Delhi on May 3, 2017.

In February 2017, Bukhari was appointed as the minister for Education in the government.

He formed his own party called Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party on 8 March 2020, nearly a year after being expelled from the PDP.

He has been granted Z+ level security, which is the highest level of security provided by the Indian government.

Business His family runs FIL Industries Limited, a conglomerate with interests in agriculture, food and beverages, tourism, hospitality, and mountain infrastructure development. He also previously served as the CEO of FIL Industries. The company was established by his father.

He is credited with introducing controlled atmosphere storage (CAS) in Kashmir and providing assistance to the Container Corporation of India in establishing a 12,000-tonne CAS facility in Haryana. An emergency meeting of the core committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Ittehad Muslimeen was held under the chairmanship of Maulana Masroor Abbas Ansari, the president of the organization, in which using the powers given to the president in the constitution, the organization's Majlis-e-Administrator Working Committee) was dissolved and a new one was formed. An ad-hoc committee consisting of only 5 members was constituted till the election of the working committee and office-bearers. In this emergency meeting, the resignation of General Secretary Syed Muzaffar Rizvi was also approved.

Other engagements He has held positions on the Board of Directors of the National Horticulture Board and on the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.