GUJRAT, May 19: Federal Information Minister Chaudhry Qamaruz Zaman Kaira has said it is strange that after Pakistan People’s Party backed Seraiki province, Punjab chief minister has woken up to presence of extremists in south of the province which he had been denying so far.

He was reacting to a statement of Shahbaz Sharif given on Friday, conceding presence of religious extremists in the southern belt of Punjab.

Kaira, who was talking to Dawn on Saturday, said before President Asif Ali Zardari gave a nod to creation of a Seraiki province in Punjab, chief minister had consistently been denying the presence of any extremist elements in the south.

Questioning Shahbaz Sharif’s claim of coping with the issue of extremism by establishing Danish schools in southern Punjab, Kaira, pointing out low enrolment in these institutions, asked how these schools built at cost of billions of rupees could curb religious fanaticism in the region by enrolling ‘only 100 children’.

He said it was the PPP government that had been waging a real war against extremist forces in the country. He said the PPP wanted to see 2013 polls as one of the most transparent and fair elections in Pakistan’s history and that was why the party was in favor of a ‘neutral’ chief election commissioner (CEC).

The information minister accused a section of the media of creating confusion over the issue of Nato supplies resumption, saying some newspapers published a ‘baseless’ report about four Nato containers allegedly crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan. Terming the report absurd and fabricated, Kaira said these containers were actually carrying food and construction material for the American Embassy in Kabul since there had been no restriction on supply to the diplomatic missions.

Regarding the possible decision on Nato supplies resumption, he said the civil and military leadership had been on board and working closely in this regard in the light of unanimous resolution of both houses of the parliament. Pakistani civil and military institutions had already been holding negotiations with their American, Nato and Isaf counterparts and as soon as these institutions submit their recommendations in the light of these dialogues, the government would make a decision in this regard, he added.

Kaira said President Asif Zardari’s participation in the Nato summit was recommended by the federal cabinet and the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) following the invitation extended to the president by the Nato chief.

About appointment of chief election commission, he said if Nawaz League had any reservation on the names sent by the prime minister for the CEC slot, PML-N should send three names of its choice to the committee for its consideration.

He said the PPP had democratic stance of accommodating all opposition members in distribution of development funds whereas Nawaz League’s Punjab government had not been giving such grants to the opposition legislators and the chief minister did not even bother to take his own cabinet on board in making decisions.

He said although the PPP and the PML-Q were committed to go to the next elections in an alliance but the seat distribution formula was yet to be finalised.

Kaira said the provincial governments should equally share the federal government’s burden for ending power outages as following the 18th Amendment a major share of resources had been diverted to the provinces. Electricity theft and line losses were also among major causes of prolonged outages while over 300 billion rupees were yet to be recovered from the public and private sectors.