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Wajahat Habibullah

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Wajahat Habibullah
1st Chief Information Commissioner of India
In office
26 October 2005 – 19 September 2010
Preceded byPosition Established
Succeeded byA. N. Tiwari
Personal details
Born (1945-09-30) 30 September 1945 (age 79)
NationalityIndian
Parents

Wajahat Habibullah (born 30 September 1945) is the former chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities.[1] Prior to this, he held the position of the first Chief Information Commissioner of India.[2] He was an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1968 until his retirement in August 2005.[3] He was also Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (Local Government).

Personal life

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Habibullah belongs to a prominent and progressive Taluqdari (Saidanpur taluqa, Barabanki district) family of the United Provinces. He is the son of General Enaith Habibullah, a former commandant of the NDA, Khadakwasla, and Hamida Habibullah, a parliamentarian and educationist.[4][5] He was Divisional Commissioner of eight districts of the Kashmir Division in the state of Jammu and Kashmir between 1991 and 1993, which was abruptly terminated by a near fatal road accident, while negotiating with militants occupying the Hazratbal shrine in Kashmir. His children Amar Habibullah and Saif Habibullah are prominent businessmen and his wife Shahila Habibullah is a social worker.[6] He was appointed as a member of the World Bank's Info Appeals Board in July 2010 [7]

Education

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He studied at Welham Boys School then known as Welham prep school and later joined the Doon School at Dehradun, from where he also did his Senior Cambridge in 1961; Bachelor of Arts (Honours)History from St Stephens' College, University of Delhi in 1965; and Master of Arts (History) from University of Delhi in 1967.[8] He was a member of Indian Administrative Service.[8][9][10]

Memberships

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Awards

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  • Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Secularism-1994
  • Gold Medal for Distinguished Service; Governor of Jammu & Kashmir-1996
  • Lala Ram Mohan History Award; Delhi University-1967[citation needed]

Publications

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  • The Problem Kashmir Today, a Symposium on a Troubled State; Seminar 392-April 1992, New Delhi
  • Kashmir 1947; Burdens of the Past, Options for the Future: Five Perspectives; Offprint from the Center for Asian Studies, the University of Texas at Austin, 1997
  • Kashmir, Rajiv Gandhi's India Vol. I Politics Ch. I the Problem Areas pp. 58–60, UBSP
  • The Islands, Rajiv Gandhi's India Vol. I Politics, Ch. II The Geographic Periphery pp. 237–39, UBS Publishers, 1998, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, London
  • Siege: Hazratbal, Kashmir 1993, India Review, Vol. 1, No. 3 July 2002, pp. 73–98, Frank Cass, London
  • The Protection of Human Rights in a Disturbed Situation, Searching for Common Ground in South Asia. Center for Pacific Asia Studies, Stockholm, 2003 pp. 31–42
  • The Political Economy of the Kashmir Conflict, Special Report 121, USIP Washington DC June 2004
  • "Kashmiris and the Kashmir Conflict" Review Essay, India Review, Vol 3, No. 3 July 2004, pp. 230–253. Frank Cass, London
  • "Government to Citizens Relationship in the Changing Economic Scenario", Promise of e-Governance-Operational Challenges ed MP Gupta pp. 1–4, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2004
  • "My Kashmir-Conflict and the Prospects of Enduring Peace" USIP Press, Washington DC, May 2008

References

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  1. ^ "Archive News". The Hindu. 2 February 2011. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Use RTI to hold govt accountable,Habibullah tells minorities - The Indian Express". The Indian Express. 10 October 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  3. ^ Backwoods Babus | Anjali Puri
  4. ^ "SAIDANPUR". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  5. ^ "List of barabanki Taluqdars". www.britishindiaassociation.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012.
  6. ^ "The Sunday Tribune - Books". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  7. ^ "CIC chief appointed member of World Bank's info appeals board". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  8. ^ a b National Commission for Minorities
  9. ^ The Sunday Tribune - Books
  10. ^ ‘If the government is not satisfied, they don’t have to kill me; they just have to transfer me’
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