JOIN USOmar confirms separating from wife
A section of national media had reported that Omar wanted to marry a high-profile Kashmiri TV professional based in Delhi, but his father, sisters and party wanted him to marry a Kashmiri girl, a close relative of Nasir Aslam Sogami, minister of state for home.
Omar had married Payal Nath, daughter of an Army officer on September 1, 1994. At that time he had not joined politics. They have two sons, Zahir and Zamir.
“I have noted with considerable dismay and anguish the growing tide of speculation in the media about my private life, particularly the status of my marriage. While it is true my wife and I have separated the speculation about motives and about my future course of action are unfounded, untrue and deeply hurtful to all concerned. The stories about my remarriage are completely false and concocted. It is a pity that while repeating these lies no effort was made to ask me whether any of this is true. In the process a lot of people have been hurt,” the chief minister said.
Omar added that media in India has a well established, undeclared code of conduct that keeps the private lives of public figures by and large private. “I believe my family and I are entitled to that privacy. At this point my concern has to and will remain my young sons who do not deserve to see themselves splashed across the news channels and pages of newspapers in this manner,” Omar said.
The chief minister stated that while his private life had gone through a period of unprecedented upheaval he had not allowed it to affect his work in any way.
“It is with this in mind that I make a humble appeal to the media to please allow my family and me the space and privacy to deal with what we are going through. My family and I will not be issuing any more statements or taking any further questions about any of this and I hope the media will respect this decision,” Omar said.