The Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. At the time of the attack, the minister was receiving guests who had come to offer condolences.
A Pakistani provincial cabinet minister, a vocal critic of the Taliban, survived an assassination bid in a suicide attack in the restive northwest, killing eight persons and injuring 25 others, two days after his only son was shot dead by terrorists.
The attacker struck shortly after Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited the residence of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain to offer his condolence over the death of Mian Rashid. Rashid was the son of Hussian who was gunned down on Saturday.
The Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.
At the time of the attack, the minister was receiving guests who had come to offer condolences.
The bomber, a youth clad in black, detonated his explosive vest when he was stopped by police at a check post a short distance from the minister's residence in Pabbi area of Nowshera district at 1.45 pm.
Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani and senior Pakistan People's Party leader Raza Rabbani too visited the house shortly before the attack.
Police said eight persons, including three policemen, a woman and a 12-year-old girl were among the dead.
A relative of the minister was also killed, said Bashir Bilour, a leader of the Awami National Party and Senior Minister in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government.
"The bomber wanted to target Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s home," Bilour said.
Four of the minister's relatives were injured but officials said they were out of danger. Peshawar city police chief Liaqat Ali Khan said police had launched a search operation as there were reports that two more suicide bombers could be in the area around the minister's residence.
Witnesses said the two other would-be bombers had fled on a motorcycle.
"The bomber came through an entrance that was being used by guests coming to the minister's home.
He exploded himself when he was stopped at a check post," Khan said.
Eight to ten kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack, he added. Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain had been getting threats from the Taliban for a long time.
Hussain, the most visible face of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, was usually the first official to visit the site of terrorist attacks and had often criticised the militants for carrying out suicide attacks.
Senior Minister Bilour said the ANP and its government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would not be cowed down by such attacks.
"We will continue our campaign against the militants. We have always been at the frontline of the war against terrorism.
If the militants think they can make us fear them by killing our leaders and their children, they are mistaken," he told the media.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the suicide attack, describing it as a "barbaric and cowardly act."
He said: "These terrorist are not only insane and inhuman, they have no regard for any religious beliefs or social values.
Such cowardly acts cannot weaken the will of the people against terrorism."
He directed the provincial government to increase vigilance at the public places. He also directed law enforcement agencies to investigate the attack and make efforts to nab those behind such incidents.
Following the suicide attack, several political leaders, including Prime Minister Gilani, Senate Chairman Farooq Naik and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, cancelled their plans to visit Pabbi to offer condolences to Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
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