First Muslim IAS officer from J-K Mohd Shafi Pandit passes away

Mohammad Shafi Pandit, the first Muslim IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir, passed away on Thursday. He was 80.

Pandit was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi after he was detected with cancer about a month ago, his family said.

Pandit was the first Muslim from Jammu and Kashmir to qualify the civil services examinations in 1969. His final assignment with the government was as the head of autonomous Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission.

In the bureaucratic circles, Pandit was widely viewed as a chief secretary that Jammu and Kashmir never had.

The soft-spoken Pandit was part of many civil society and philanthropic initiatives in Kashmir. He also played a key role in rolling out of the Mandal Commission report as he was the joint secretary in the Government of India in 1992.

Pandit's body will be flown to Srinagar later in the day.

"If possible, he will be laid to rest today," his family said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh condoled the death of the IAS officer.

"My good friend of many years, Mohammed Shafi Pandit, has just passed away. He was a 1969-batch IAS officer who occupied important positions with distinction, both in J&K and at the Centre," Ramesh wrote in a post on X.

"After retirement, he devoted himself to various public causes and emerged as a leading voice of civil society. Soft-spoken and extremely gentle by nature, he epitomised the glorious composite heritage of J&K and was a role model for youth from the Valley to join the civil services," the Congress leader added.