LAHORE, May 10: PPP Punjab information secretary Farzana Raja and finance secretary Aurangzeb Burki have taken a strong exception to employing the official machinery for holding ruling party’s rally in Islamabad and the MQM procession in Karachi.

In a joint press statement on Thursday, the PPP leaders said the rallies were not only being organised on the same day when Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was scheduled to address the Karachi bar, but public money was also being used for the purpose.

They alleged that private vehicles were being impounded to transport government employees to Islamabad to man the `official’ rally and hefty amounts were spent on advertisements appearing in print media.

“This only shows that the regime has become so panicky that it was holding rallies even at the risk of creating a situation of conflict”, Ms Raja said and added that such tactics would not work for the rulers. —Correspondent