PM's initiative a 'joke' with the people of Kashmir: PDP

Jammu and Kashmir's main opposition PDP tonight dismissed as a "joke with the people of Kashmir" prime minister Manmohan Singh's fresh initiative to end the unrest in the Valley.

"The prime minister's statement (at the meeting with an all-party delegation from the state) is a joke with the people of Kashmir", PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed said.

Sayeed described as a "futile exercise" the meeting the PM had with the delegation alleging "nothing will come out of it".

He said that Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had convened a meeting of all political parties a month ago and decided to send a delegation to meet the prime minister.

However, all the parties had already met Singh separately before today's meeting, Sayeed added.

Mufti said that the economic and employment package was not a solution to the Kashmir problem and suggested the separatists, including hardline Hurryat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, be invited to resolve the issue.