LAHORE, Oct 18: Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani has termed Ms Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan on Thursday a ‘hasty step and an emotional act’ which will undermine the national reconciliation initiative taken by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“Ms Bhutto’s decision to come back to the country against the advice of the president will not make any positive contribution to a harmonious political atmosphere the latter wants to create,” he said while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

The minister said the PPP chairperson had taken hasty decisions in the past and was doing the same now. “It would have been better if she had responded positively to President Musharraf’s sincere advice (to delay her return). Her positive gesture would have helped change the pattern of confrontationist politics.”

Asked why the president wanted her to delay her return, Mr Durrani said: “For a smooth transition to democracy.”

He said in the past a smooth transition had always been a big problem and President Musharraf wanted to set a new tradition this time.

The minister said the National Reconciliation Ordinance had been challenged before the Supreme Court and the president did not want a situation to crop up having the potential to sabotage the objectives of the NRO.

About the status of the cases against Ms Bhutto after the promulgation of the NRO, the minister said the matter was now pending before the court for a decision.