ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The government on Wednesday described PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s Wednesday’s news conference a new attempt to use the Sindh card, and opposition parties said it had reduced her status into a ‘regional’ leader.

Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said at a news conference that the PPP could no more use the Sindh card as now equally belonged to Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim Khan.

Mr Durrani regretted that Ms Bhutto had talked like a provincial leader to gain political mileage because she lacked any meaningful public welfare agenda which she could use in the coming elections.

He said the PML, despite the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, would continue to expose Ms Bhutto’s corruption and corrupt practices.

Referring to Ms Bhutto’s tirade against the Supreme Court, the minister said that judiciary was independent and she could no more hoodwink the people.

PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Liaquat Baloch strongly criticised the government for giving a free hand to Ms Bhutto who, they said, was trying to use the Sindh card to weaken the national unity and to undermine the unprecedented inter-provincial harmony witnessed in the recent past.

Mr Iqbal said: “Though we welcome Ms Bhutto’s homecoming, we regret the government’s discrimination against PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif who was not even allowed to meet his people at the airport and was deported to Saudi Arabia against his will.”

He said that Mr Sharif was given such an ugly treatment because Gen Musharraf was afraid of the PML-N leader’s ‘principled stand’ and his popularity among the masses.

He criticised Ms Bhutto’s anti-Punjab utterances and said she had presented herself as a regional leader by airing such views during her press conference in Dubai.

He said the NRO had been promulgated to give relief only to Ms Bhutto and her husband against corruption cases as all other important matters such as restoration of democracy, the NSC or Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution and the uniform issue had not been addressed in it.

Mr Baloch said: “Benazir Bhutto knows well that she cannot win in Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP, hence she has been left with no alternative but to use the Sindh card.”

A senior PML leader told Dawn on condition of anonymity that Ms Bhutto was well aware of the fate of the NRO and she was also afraid of the sharp reaction from the NWFP and Punjab.

He said the PML leadership was aware that the NRO would be struck down by the court and Ms Bhutto would have to undergo court cases in the country.

Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said that at a time when the government was sincerely trying to promote inter-provincial harmony, Ms Bhutto’s utterances against Punjab were unfortunate and sad.