LAHORE, Jan 30: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) ViceChairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan say the Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) is not serious in creating new federating units and is making an `abortive attempt` to win over voters in the name of the Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab province.

Qureshi told a press conference here on Wednesday that President Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were staging a political drama on the creation of a new province.

He said the Parliamentary Commission on New Provinces and the government were non-serious on the issue. He said had they been sincere they would have done something by this time.

Qureshi says the PPP is fooling people through the excuse of not having two-thirds majority in the parliament although it managed to secure the majority to get the 18th Amendment passed. He said his party was not against creation of new federating units,but it wanted the policy on administrative and not on political basis.

Stressing that deprivations of south Punjab people should be taken care of, the PTI leader from Multan said some elements got the issue politicised like Gen Ziaul Haq made the Kalabagh Dam project controversial and now people of Dera Ghazi Khan and Mianwali were protesting against it. He demanded that the government take all parties on board on new provinces.

Replying to a query, he said thePTIhadconfidencein the chief election commissioner, but it was not consulted on the selection of four provincial members of the election commission. He said an `incomplete` ECP was formed to give political mileage to stakeholders.

Qureshi told a questioner that the PTI would stand by the Constitution as far as establishment of the caretaker set-up was concerned and that it would not support any extra-constitutional step.

The Punjab law minister says the PPP is scoring pointsin the name of new province, as its non-serious attitude is creating hurdles in its creation instead of facilitating it.

He says that strikes and protest rallies in Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali and Bhakkar are evidence of the PPP`s ill-planned strategy.

Talking to the media here, he said the decision and procedure on the division of the province should have been taken by people of Punjab and the job was done through a Punjab Assembly resolution a year ago. The PPP government, he said, was trying to get the task done through the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), which had no representation even at the local council level in Punjab.

Khan said the MQM was supporting division of Punjab and Khyber Palchtunkhwa to pave the way for a new federating unit in Sindh consisting of Karachi and Hyderabad divisions. He chided the ANP for ignoring the demand for Hazara province and seeking the division of Punjab.