LAHORE, Feb 23 Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah says he has done nothing wrong by approaching some leaders of a banned outfit to seek their support in by-polls at PP-82 (Jhang).

He was speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Referring to Sheikh Waqas' allegation in the National Assembly on Monday that Rana Sana had contacts with the now defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba, he said the PML-Q MNA too had approached Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi and others for winning their support for his party's nominee but failed.

The minister said the MP from Jhang realised that contacts with the outfit were bad only after he (Sana) succeeded in winning its sympathies for the PML-N candidate. He said all members of the defunct outfit or any other banned groups were not terrorists, otherwise they all would have been arrested.

He said members of the defunct SSP were voters, and he had a political right to reach all the voters to win their support for his party's nominee.

Replying to a query about the case against over 200 PPP activists for staging a rally, the minister said the government did not believe in political victimisation. He said the case had to be registered under legal compulsions as the Supreme Court was criticised in the rally.

He denied Inspector-General of Police Tariq Saleem Dogar's assertion that the case was registered on the directives of the SC registrar. “No written application was received from the SC registrar for the purpose.”

He said the case would, however, be investigated in a transparent manner.

To a question about signing of the Local Government Ordinance (amendment) bill by the governor, he said administrators would replace nazims most probably from Wednesday (today).

He said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani played his role in making Salmaan Taseer sign the bill lying with the governor since Feb 4.

Under the law, the governor can retain a bill, after it has been passed by the provincial legislature, for a maximum of 30 days and then has to sign it or return to the house for reconsidering the same.

Rana Sana said the amended law empowered the government to appoint any officer in BS-17 or above as administrator of local governments as a majority of tehsil/town municipal officers and revenue deputy district officers were not qualified to hold the posts.