Srinagar, July 15 -- By Farooq Ahmad Khan

I met Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal on September 4, 1997, my first day as Managing Director of the Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation.

I drove to his home in Tangmarg before I had even unpacked, because a project of that size needed his blessing more than it needed my credentials.

He gave both without hesitation.

That man died this month, and Jammu and Kashmir has lost something harder to name than a politician: a man who treated public office as a form of custody rather than ownership.

The Abdullah name holds weight in Kashmir the way few family names do anywhere. Kamal was the son of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the leader known as Sher-e-Kashmir. He was the brother of Dr. Farooq Abdullah and ...