LAHORE, Dec 29: Former provincial law and local government minister Muhammad Basharat Raja has said the Punjab government advertisement on the corruption of district nazims is a contempt of court.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Basharat Raja said the Lahore High Court had already given its verdict on the audit of district governments. It had restrained the provincial government from interference in the affairs of district governments on the pretext of audit.

He said the provincial government could not interfere in the district governments system in view of court directions. The district nazims had the right to approach the court against the advertisements through which the Punjab government had defamed them.

Mr Raja said that wastage of billions of rupees on character assassination of political opponents by squandering billions of rupees from the national exchequer was an old ploy of the PML-N.

The PML-N squandered billions of rupees from the national exchequer on the media campaign accusing Asif Ali Zardari and the late Benazir Bhutto of taking away billions of dollars from the national kitty till 1990, but the Sharif brothers entered into an alliance with the PPP by signing the Charter of Democracy instead of taking corruption cases to a logical end.

He said the PML-N had practiced the politics of confrontation from the very beginning. The clash of institutions had disastrous consequences in the past. Results would not be different if the practice was not given up, he said.

The provincial government of the PML-N had restored the commissioners system unlawfully. The district governments system could not be changed without an amendment in the Constitution, but the PML-N was trying to do it through its negative media campaign, he said.