Jammu, July 30
Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Culture and Welfare Forum (JKPCWF) a premier representative organization of the Pahari Community of J&K convened a meeting on Saturday under the chairmanship of Forum Patron-in-Chief Muzaffar Hussain Baig through video conference. Forum expressed its sincere gratitude to the Government of India for introducing the Constitutional Schedule Tribe Amendment Bill in the Parliament which was a long-pending justified demand of the Pahari Tribe. Terming it as a milestone in the ongoing struggle of the Pahari community for four decades, the forum thanked Prime Minister of India Sh. Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah for their personal efforts.
Pahari veteran leader Syd Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari presided over the meeting personally. On this occasion, the participants reiterated the commitment made during the important meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on 25 December 2019, in which the delegation assured the Home Minister that if the long pending demand of the Pahari community is fulfilled, Jammu and Kashmir will repay kindness with kindness.
They articulated that whole Pahari tribe will remain thankful to the GOI in all the times to come and whole of the tribe will remember the landmark decision taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah
In today’s important meeting, the participants gave some important suggestions to make the forum active. In this regard some important decisions were also taken. The participants of the meeting congratulated and expressed their gratitude to Muzaffar Hussain Baig, the patron of the forum, for his active and constructive role in representing the Pahari community. In his speech Sh. Muzffar Hussain Baig while welcoming the decision of Government of said “A long standing justified demand of Paharis’ is acknowledged by the Govt. of India lead by Prime Minister Narendra Modi government”
He appreciated all individual and collective efforts for achieving this goal. He urged the participants to ensure that promises made to the central leadership be achieved in letter and spirit, make the forum more active and frame a strategy for facing forthcoming challenges after getting ST. He also urged for discipline in organization setup and to make everyone accountable. While underlining the importance of the non-political role of the forum speakers and said that ‘Jammu Kashmir Pahari Culture and Welfare Forum’ is a representative organization of the Pahari community irrespective of political affiliation, which has been working for the last four decades.
In today’s meeting, a detailed discussion was held regarding the restructuring of the forum and it was decided that this process will be completed during the next few sessions after taking into account all the factors. Initially Muhammad Naseem Malik was appointed its organizing secretary after the approval of Patron-in-Chief Muzaffar Hussain Baig to mobilize the Forum. In this meeting, Ex- Deputy Chairman Legislative Council Jahangir Hussain Mir, Ex-MLC and senior forum leader Murtaza Khan, Senior forum leader and Ex-MLC M. R Qureshi, Ex-MLA Ashok Kumar Sharma, former judge and Advocate Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Syed Iqbal Kazmi, Advocate Zahid Sarfaraz Malik, Advocate Altaf Hussain Janjua and former bureaucrat Muhammad Naseem Malik were present. Earlier tributes were paid to those forum senior members who left for heavenly abode. 
