Professor Saifuddin Soz is presently the cabinet minister, Ministry of Water Resources. Professor Soz was also India`s Minister of Environment and Forests in the nineties as well as a long-time Member of Parliament. This eminent political personality is an educationist, economist, and writer, political and social worker by profession. He was nominated to the Congress Working Committee, in January 2006, the executive committee of the Indian National Congress.
Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz was born on 23rd November 1937 to father Shri Hakim Habibulla and mother Shrimati Sajida Begum at Sopore, Distt. Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir). He obtained M.A. in Economics and also did B.Ed. from Jammu and Kashmir University, Srinagar. He is married to Shrimati Mumtazunnisa on 9 November 1961 and the couple has one daughter and two sons.
Saif-ud-Din Soz has been the Professor of Economics at Colleges affiliated to the University of Jammu and Kashmir. He held high positions in University and School Administration of the Jammu and Kashmir Government. He has served as the Chairman of India Center of Asian Studies, and as the President of People`s Empowerment Mission, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
He has also been the Member of
* Court of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
* Academic Council, University of Kashmir,
* Academic Council, Board of School Education, Jammu and Kashmir,
* Bureau for Promotion of Urdu
* Parliamentarians for Environment,
* Court of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
* Court of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
* National Integration Council
* Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages
* Advisory Committee of Sahitya Akademy (Academy of Letters)
During 1983-84, he became the member of Seventh Lok Sabha and inducted into the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Social Welfare from 1984 to 89. He again selected as the member of Eighth Lok Sabha (2nd term). From 1984 to 99, he was the Leader of Parliamentary Party.
The other posts, he held throughout rest of his political career are: 1985-88 Member, Committee on Public Undertakings Member, Committee on Estimates1985-88 and 1998-99 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas1989-91 Member, Ninth Lok Sabha (3rd term) Nov. 1996 Elected to Rajya Sabha1996, 1998-99, Jan. 2003-Feb. Member, Committee on Science and 2004 and Aug. 2004 onwards Technology, Environment and Forests1997-98 Union Cabinet Minister, Environment and Forests1998-99 Member, Twelfth Lok Sabha (4th term)Member, Public Accounts Committee Nov. 2002 Elected to Rajya Sabha Aug. 2004 onwards Member, Committee of Privileges Sept. 2004 onwards Member, Anjuman (Court) of Jamia Millia Islamia University Oct. 2004 onwards Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Environment "amp; Forests.
Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz also represented India at:
* 12th Congress of Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference, Algiers, May, 1984,
* Inter-Parliamentary Conference, Mexico, April, 1985,
* International Conference on Peace, Copenhagen, May, 1987,
* International Conference on Peace, Baghdad, April, 1989,
* Afro-Asian Conference on Peace and Solidarity, U.S.S.R., May, 1989,
* International Conference on Alternative World Order, Kuala Lumpur,
November, 1994, International Conference on Peace Movements, Tripoli, November, 1995
* Conference on Ethnic Conflict in South Asia, Colombo, June, 1996;
Member, (i) Parliamentary Delegation, Japan, October, 1989 and (ii) Official Delegation led by the then President of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan to Germany, Luxemburg, Portugal and Turkey, 1998; Chief Guest at Male (Maldives) representing Government of India at the inauguration of Maldives Institute of Technical Education, May, 1997;
Leader of Indian Delegation to the (i) Ministerial Conference on Commission on Sustainable Development, Dresden, Germany, March, 1997; (ii) Ministerial Conference on U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification in Asia, Beijing, May, 1997, (iii) Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS) to review and appraise the implementation of Agenda 21, New York, 23-27 June, 1997, (iv) XIth World Forestry Conference, Antalya, Turkey, 11-16 October, 1997 and (v) Conference of Parties-3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto, Japan, 1997; visited, Austria to hold bilateral discussions with the Environment Minister of Austria on conservation of water bodies, solid waste management etc.,
3-8 July, 1997; attended, (i) IXth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, Montreal, Canada, 15-17 September, 1997 and (ii) First Conference of Parties of Convention to Combat Desertification, Rome, 8-11 October, 1997; addressed the U.N. Special Session on Human Rights in Geneva, 22 March-30 April, 1999.
As an educationist and writer he has written essays and short stories in Kashmiri, on a variety of subjects. He has also written several articles in reputed newspapers and journals like Islam and Modernism, Rights of Women, Secularism, Literature, Education and Economics. He also took part widely in discussions on Kashmir during the past fifteen years. Several awards like All India Basic Literature Competition Award, Competition for Literature for Neo-Literates Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award were conferred to him for his contribution. He has written many books like "Kashmir Crisis", "Why Autonomy to Kashmir", "Secularism - an Interpretation", "A Socio-Economic Survey of Gurez Valley", "Problems of Kashmiri Language and Literature", "Daj"- a play in Kashmiri on abuses of Dowry system. He has also translated M. Allin`s book "1,00,000 Whys" from Russian to Kashmiri.
