Srinagar: PDP president and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Monday vacated the government residence at Fairview Gupkar in Srinagar. Mehbooba was served an official notice to vacate the premises by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led J&K administration earlier this month.
Mehbooba was residing at Fairview Gukpar in Srinagar since the bungalow was allotted by the Estates department to her father late Mufti Muhammad Sayed when he became chief minister in 2002 in coalition with the Congress party.
Mehbooba was earlier served notice by the LG administration in 2020 and this was the second notice served to her since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. She has been opposing the abrogation and downgrading of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
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Sources in the administration said an alternate accommodation was offered to Mehbooba but she refused it. She has shifted to Khimber in Srinagar outskirts which is 25 kilometers from Lalchowk.
The Fairview residence of Muftis was formerly an infamous torture center, known as PAPA-2. Till 1989, it served as an official guest house but the building was occupied by the Border Security Forces in 1990 which named it PAPA-2. It functioned as an interrogation and torture center till 1996.
In 1996, Ashok Jaitley, former Chief Secretary of the erstwhile state moved into it and used it as his residence. In 2003 it was renovated and served as the residence of the then Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig.
