Profile of Mehbooba Mufti Saeed
Mehbooba was born on 22nd May, 1959 in Anantnag. She belonged to a rich Kashmiri Saeed family. She was always a very intelligent girl. She was the topper of her school and later got Law Degree from the University of Kashmir. Her father was a prominent leader of Congress and Mehbooba had little to do with politics.
The name of Mehbooba became famous during the infamous kidnapping of her younger sister Rubiya Saeed. At that time, Mufti Saeed was the Junior Home Minister to the Government of India led by V P Singh. After hectic drama, five hard core terrorists were released in exchange of Rubiya. Mehbooba became quite famous at that time because she was giving lots of interviews to various media personalities.
Mufti with Rubia and Mehbooba when she was released by JKLF terrorists
However, she remained aloof to politics even then.
It was only in 1996 that Mehbooba became proactively involved in the politics. Her father had again joined Congress and she was given a ticket to fight Assembly election from Bijbehara. She won comfortably. Three years later, Mufti Mohammed Saeed again quit Congress and this time he went to the extent of forming his own party – PDP. Mehbooba was made the Vice President of the party and since then there is no looking back for her as far as politics is concerned. She is a major obstacle to Omar Abdullah in the state politics.
Family of Mehbooba Mufti Saeed
The world is aware of Mehbooba Mufti sister Rubia Saeed because of that infamous kidnapping. She has another sister, who is not so famous. Her name is Mehmooda. Apart from them, she is a brother named Mufti Tasaduq. He is completely not interest in politics. Currently Tasaduq is working as Cinematographer in the Bollywood and Hollywood. Tasaduq’s work was quite appreciated in Vishal Bhardwaj film Onkara and Kaminey.
The mother of Mehbooba Mufti is Gulshan Ara. In fact, along with Mehbooba, Gulshan had also fought the 1996 election. However, Gulshan had lost that election.
Husband of Mehbooba Mufti
It is quite disheartening to learn that Mehbooba Mufti doesn’t enjoy a successful personal life. In fact, she is a divorcee. She has two daughters named – Iitija and Irtiqa. The elder daughter works in London at the Indian High Commission while the younger daughter is involved in the film industry like her uncle.
Her husband's name is Jave Iqbal. He is the cousin of Late Mufti Mohammed Saeed. In fact, it was Mufti Mohammed Saheb who had persuaded Mehbooba to get married with his cousin - Mehbooba's uncle. The marriage couldn't go long and because of some internal issues, Mehbooba and Javed divorced. Currently, Javed is fierce rival of Mufti family. In fact, he doesn't want to see his two daughters. He had joined Abdullah's National Conference and unsuccessfully fought election in 2008.