KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that the South Punjab province would be formed in accordance with the aspirations of people of the area.

The process in this regard is underway, said the Information Minister while talking to media persons after his arrival at the Karachi Airport on Sunday evening.

Kaira said that the time period of the Commission for the formation of South Punjab province had expired and it had again been notified.

A province can be formed if the people of the area aspired for the same. There is a procedure in this regard and there are justified reasons for this, he opined.

He said that the Commission for the South Punjab province would submit its report in the National Assembly and the set procedure would be adopted.

Replying to a question, the Information Minister said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had entered into an alliance with the PML-Q as well as with the Sunni Ittehad Council and “we will contest the coming general elections together”.

He said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) were also PPP's allies but there was no formal declaration as yet for contesting the general elections together. However, there is possibility that we contest these polls together with the MQM and the ANP, he added.

The minister said that it was the PPP's desire that there should be no bitterness again in the politics. It has been experienced that such a bitterness results in loss at the national level, he added.

Kaira said that it was also the vision of PPP leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to follow the politics of reconciliation and forge tolerance and President Asif Ali Zardari was pursuing such an approach.

Replying to a question, he said that there were bye-elections on two seats of the National Assembly and the PML-N retained the one, which was held by it previously. Those, who pose themselves as champions of Charter of Democracy, played a trick on the other seat regarding candidature, he added.

He said that before that the PPP had won quite a number of bye- elections.

Answering another question, he said that the office of Federal Ombudsman was for the provision of justice to the people. A senior bureaucrat, Salman Faruqui has been appointed on this very post and he has been given temporary charge, he added.