About a decade back, when Dr. Shah Faesal became the first Kashmiri to top the UPSC Civil Services Exam, he created news for more reasons than one. Being the first Kashmiri to get the topmost rank in the prestigious exam was enough to make him the toast of the Valley, but more than that, his troubled past brought him into much focus. He had seen his father getting killed in front of his eyes during a militant attack in 2002. He was just 19 at that time, and it was a very traumatic time for him. So, when he topped CSE, people in the Valley rejoiced, and he became the poster boy for the youth.
FACING THE CHALLENGES
Shah Faesal was born in the Sogam area of Lolab Valley, located in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. He graduated in 2008 from the Jhelum Valley Medical College. He holds an MBBS degree from Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, and has a Master’s degree in Urdu.
He belongs to a family of teachers – his father, his mother and even his grandfather were teachers.
Despite all the trauma he had to face at such an early age, he remained focused in his studies and completed his MBBS with excellent results, even getting a gold medal. Dr. Shah said in an interview that, “I had only two choices – to be bogged down or to stand up and face the challenge.”
CLEARING UPSC
After his MBBS, his well-wishers advised him to go for the UPSC exam and join the Hamdard Study Circle in Delhi to prepare for it. He joined it and in 2010, he cleared the tough examination to become the first IAS officer from Kashmir.
He said, “I felt that I could not have made a change by being at a hospital and wanted to work closely with the government.” It was a proud moment for him and the whole of Kashmir when he was allotted IAS, and he became the poster boy for the youth of Kashmir.
STINT AS IAS OFFICER
On 16 August 2012, Dr. Faisal was appointed as the Assistant Commissioner, Revenue, of Pulwama district. He became the Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora district on 8 February 2014. After this, he joined as the Director of School Education, Kashmir, on 22 August 2015. He was temporarily given the additional charge of the vice-chairman of J&K Lakes and Waterways Development Authority on 26 March 2016.
QUIT IAS FOR POLITICS
Dr. Faesal received the Fulbright-Nehru Masters’s Fellowship in May 2018 to study at the Harvard Kennedy School. He resigned from the IAS on 9 January 2019 citing “unabated killings” in Kashmir among other things, announcing the resignation through a Facebook post. He was also disillusioned with his role as a bureaucrat.
On 4 February 2019, Dr. Faesal Shah began his journey into politics by giving a public speech in his hometown of Kupwara. He launched his own political party, Jammu & Kashmir Peoples’ Movement (JKPM) in 2019. However, this did not last long, and he quit politics also, in 2020.
