KARACHI: A spokesman for the Punjab government on Monday blamed the federation for the change of words in the part pertaining to Khatm-e-Nabuwat (Finality of Prophethood) in the Elections Bill 2017.

Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Malik Ahmed Khan said that if the same bill had been adopted by the Punjab Assembly, then the provincial law minister would have been responsible for it, but this was federation’s matter.

Khan said that if Shehbaz Sharif had demanded the removal from the cabinet of those responsible for the change, then he was justified in doing so.

He said the Punjab government had kept the sit-in by a religious group contained for 20-25 days and the allegation against the provincial government of sending protesters to the federal capital was baseless.

“The protesters were informed that the changes made to the affidavit were not intentional and there was no conspiracy behind it,” the spokesman said.

“Participants of the sit-in had said they would return after getting their protest recorded, but they backtracked from their commitment and staged a sit-in [in Islamabad] instead.”