Islamabad, Nov.24 (ANI): Pakistan Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has rebuked reports about differences between President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yosuf Raza Gilani on the issue of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Talking to media persons here, Kaira said there is ‘no basis for such an impression created by certain elements.’

It is worth mentioning here that the undeclared cold war between the Zardari and Gilani came out in the open, when top presidential aides expressed their strong opposition to the PM-signed law ministry order, which named them as beneficiaries.

“The innocent continued to be maligned with the guilty ones even after 12 years of media trial and no effort was being made to separate the two,” President’s secretary general Salman Faruqui said earlier.

Kaira also rejected demands for the resignation of NRO beneficiaries, saying people have been accused and not convicted.

“Accusation and conviction are two different things and an accused cannot be declared a convict unless a court of law hands in a verdict to this effect,” The Dawn quoted Kaira, as saying.

He stressed that the list of beneficiaries was prepared by the National Accountability Bureau and not by the Ministry of Law.

While the list includes the names of President Asif Ali Zardari and 36 other politicians, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his wife are not on the beneficiaries list.

The list also names several bureaucrats, including Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqi.

Meanwhile, Zardari reportedly met Gilani here to defuse ‘tension’ between their respective camps.

According to sources, Zardari is angered by the way the NRO beneficiaries list was released to the media.

They said Zardari wanted the list to be made public only after removing fallacies from it.

Zardari is also said to have supported the view of the PPP leaders who objected to the list being made public, saying it was done in ‘haste’. (ANI)