ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has condemned what she said the Sindh government backed rowdyism in a meeting of the district council Khairpur on Wednesday.

In a statement issued here on Thursday by the PPP media cell, Ms Bhutto demanded registration of cases against those responsible and a judicial inquiry by a high court judge into the incident.

The statement said Shafi Mohammad Chandio, the convener of the Khairpur district assembly and Nazim of the Faqirabad union council, was thrown out and his office occupied by the provincial government backed councillors.

"The manipulatively formed provincial government has been pursuing a single point agenda of destabilising the district government of Khairpur, headed by a woman Nazim and supported by the Awam Dost members.

"In pursuit of this agenda, the police are also acting at the behest of the provincial government even though they are under the district Nazim." Ms Bhutto said the Khairpur incident was not the first of its kind in which the district council headed by a PPP supported Nazim had been destabilized through different means, making a mockery of the so-called devolution plan.

She said the district council was being destabilized just because it was headed by a woman who is also the daughter of a former PPP chief minister of the province.

"The police acting under instructions of the provincial government refused to follow the orders of the district Nazim to register cases against the hooligans. Instead, cases were registered against the convener and other members of the council who supported the Nazim," the statement said.

The PPP chairperson said not long ago the provincial government had registered fictitious cases of water theft and kidnapping against the council members who backed the district Nazim, Nafeesa Shah.

She said the Wednesday incident was a continuation of the policy of intimidation and coercion to destabilize the local government. She paid tribute to the councillors and the Nazim for standing up courageously to the hooligans and refusing to be cowed down by them.