Islamabad, March 9 (DPA) Police in Pakistan are to open a case of attempted murder against a provincial minister for allegedly firing gunshots at an opponent, the Daily Times reported Friday.

Ghulam Hussain Unar, energy minister in the government of Sindh province, is accused of trying to kill a member of the national parliament and sister-in-law of the country's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Azra Fazl was unharmed when Unar and accomplice gunmen are said to have targeted her car last month during a by-election to a provincial assembly seat in Sindh.

The official said she escaped unharmed because she was travelling in an armour-plated vehicle, which reportedly used to belong to Bhutto before she went into voluntary exile in early 1999.

A committee of Pakistan's National Assembly lower house of parliament Thursday instructed the police to investigate the incident.