Former finance minister Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Saturday challenged senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to prove his allegations against him or otherwise resign from his present position in Parliament on moral grounds.

Reacting to media reports wherein Azad has been quoted saying that some Congress leaders were being threatened to join “Third Front” or otherwise they well get implicated in some false cases, Bukhari said that it is very unfortunate that a leader like Mr.  Azad is playing cheap politics.

“Let me put it on record that I hold Azad Saheb in high esteem but it is very unfortunate that he has leveled baseless allegations against me and my colleagues stooping so low for doing petty politics,” the former finance minister observed. Bukhari said that he neither holds any power nor is in any position to misuse State machinery or agencies, like has been the precedence in Congress, led regimes in the State.

“I have often repeated that I am joined by some of my friends, colleagues and well-wishers of Jammu and Kashmir to raise and address the sufferings caused to the people by whosoever has been at the helms of affairs in the State and in the Centre,” Bukhari remarked.

He said that it is a fact that a number of senior Congress leaders are in touch with him but there is no question of coercing them or extending any facilities like Azad sahib has pointed out in his statement. “There are many Congress leaders who share the same vision, passion and motivation to serve their people in their own capacities and thus are coming forward in that direction day by day,” he added.

Bukhari said that the remarks made by the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha have exposed Azad sahib’s respect for his party colleagues in Jammu and Kashmir whom he has brandished as imprudent to take any decision on their own