Need MPs who can raise Kashmir issues in parliament: PDP

Accusing Jammu and Kashmir MPs of not raising state issues in parliament, Opposition PDP on Wednesday said there was a need to send "strong and sincere voices" to the highest forum which could bring Kashmir into focus at the national level.

Accusing Jammu and Kashmir MPs of not raising state issues in parliament, Opposition PDP on Wednesday said there was a need to send "strong and sincere voices" to the highest forum which could bring Kashmir into focus at the national level.

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"We need to have strong and sincere voices in the parliament who can take up the Kashmir issue and the issues of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of the country inside the parliament and outside it," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said addressing workers' conventions at Pulwama and Awantipora in south Kashmir.

"Unfortunately till now those who have taken votes in the name of state's dignity, autonomy and other emotional issues always collaborated with the tormenters of the people of the state," Mufti said.

She said four members of RJD "could stop" an important legislation in the parliament while parties from Bengal and Tamil Nadu effectively "intervened" in the foreign affairs of the country but half a dozen MPs in UPA from Jammu and Kashmir "did not even open their mouth" about state issues.

"No MP from J&K even asked a question about any issue related to the state as has been brought out in the Lok Sabha record recently," the PDP president said.

Attacking the ruling National Conference, she said: "The only objective of elections for National Conference has been to find jobs for their leaders in Delhi and state." Mehbooba said she and her senior colleague and former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig as well as Tariq Hameed Karra and Yashpal Sharma were fielded by the party with the expectation that they would effectively bring Kashmir into focus at national level.

"PDP believes that resolution of issues and problems is a duty that elected representatives owe to their people and voters and that is why it has emerged as a feasible and preferred alternative to NC," she said.