ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: The People’s Parliamentarians (PPP) candidate from NA-49, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, on Thursday, lambasted the government for, what he termed, “supporting loan defaulters and notorious characters”.

He was speaking at an election meeting, held at the Melody Market. Without naming father of an independent candidate supported by the PML-Q, he said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had promised that he would not let the “loan defaulters run the election campaign”.

“What sanctity exists of such promises made to the nation in televized speeches by the head of the state when all went down the drain.”

Mr Bukhari further questioned the government as to “what other evidence it had been asking for the pre-poll rigging when the governor of Punjab is inaugurating development schemes in the constituencies, and in the presence, of the loan defaulters to the tune of billions of rupees”.

He defended the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari with regard to the charges of corruption against them. This is nothing but political victimization, he said.

Meanwhile, the PPP candidate from NA-48, Dr Babar Awan, has pledged to ensure special quota for the children of federal government employees in all educational institutions of the capital.

Speaking at public meetings in rural areas, he lamented that there was no such quota for the children of government servants in the capital, as a result of which thousands of students could not get admissions to schools and colleges every year.

He claimed that he would make Islamabad a city of education, where, besides local students, those coming from other parts of the country would also be encouraged to study.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N candidate from NA-48, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, speaking at similar meetings in different residential localities, expressed his disappointment over the law and order situation in the country.

Referring to the incidents of gang rape of women from poor families by the “hooligans” of the affluent class, he held the authoritarianizm responsible for such shameful acts.

He said authoritarianizm “leaves no room for the remedy of the grievances of the downtrodden and serves the cause of the big shots only”.