Srinagar: Dr Abdul Hameed Fayyaz has been elected as the Chief of Jamat e Islami Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The election was held at the party’s educational secretariat Nowgam Srinagar and sources said that Fayaz was given 76 votes, a major figure to make him the next chief of JEI in the state.

Fayyaz, a fiery speaker, was a close aide of Dr Ayyoub Thakur, and both were associated with Islami Jamiat Talba and has led the students organisation for almost a decade.

Fayyaz will take over the reigns of Jamat from Ghulam Muhammad Bhat.

The new cheif of JeI was born in the year 1956. He has done PhD in Urdu.

Fayyaz  got associated with JeI in his childhood in 1976 and functioned on various important positions in Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba J&K and Jama’at-e-Islami J&K. He has been chief of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba J&K for 11 years and also worked as Secretary General of Jama’at for 6 years. He also worked on different posts in the central as well as the district offices of Jama’at.

In the beginning of his career, he worked as a teacher in a school run by Jama’at and in 1985, he joined district office Pulwama as Assistant Secretary General of Pulwama and since then is working in Jama’at as a full time worker. He is one of the best known orators in Jama’at having hold over religious education and Urdu or Persian poetry particularly that of Alama Iqbl (ra).

In his maiden speech before the House of Representative, the new JeI cheif  reiterated that Jama’at-e-Islami will follow its party constitution in letter and spirit and all the affairs including policy and programs will be framed with the aid and advice of Central Advisory Council (Shoora).

Jama’at is a socio-politico-religious organization working for the last more than 70 years in Jammu and Kashmir for propagation of the message of Islam in a peaceful and democratic manner and this methodology will be followed constantly for the achievement of the goal of Jama’at.

Regarding Kashmir issue, Fayaz said the stand of Jama’at is that this unsettled issue be resolved either according to the UN resolutions or through tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and real representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed before October, 1947.

He also said that Jama’at will continue to impress both the neighboring countries for the final settlement of Kashmir issue in accordance with the aspirations of the people concerned. Regarding the special status of J&K, he made it clear that the public movement going on for the protection of this status given to J&K under Articles 35A and 370 under a temporary arrangement till the final settlement of the Kashmir issue, will be fully backed and no one will be allowed to weaken this special status. (With inputs from wire agencies)