ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: The election campaign is gaining momentum in the Federal Capital, as candidates of different political parties are holding corner meetings.

The PPP candidate for NA-48, Babar Awan, speaking at a gathering at Sri Saral and Pind Sangrial villages on Tuesday, promised the villagers that if elected, he would move a bill in the assembly for the establishment of a new agency to ensure rapid development work in the suburbs of Islamabad.

He said if the PPP came to power, it would award exemplary punishment to all those, who were responsible for the ill-planned operation in Sri Saral. “We will make sure that all the villagers are duly compensated,” he added.

“Rapid increase in power tariff and price hike has made the life of common man miserable,” he said.

He paid rich tributes to Ms Benazir Bhutto and said “she is not power hungry and the country needs her to come out of the danger, which has been created by the military rulers.”

He said Benazir Bhutto remained a victim of the establishment’s conspiracies because she was the only leader who wanted to share power with the people.

Meanwhile, the PML-N leader, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, has called upon the party workers to forge unity among their ranks.

Talking to the party activists, he said “hijacking case” and its “virtual defeat in the court, had proved that dismissal of the PML-N government was a conspiracy.

He was confident that his party would again muster support of masses. Referring to various projects, he said: “Mian Nawaz Sharif was making Pakistan a true welfare state.”

The PML-Q candidate, Adnan Keyani, speaking at the inauguration of party’s election office at Sitara Market said “the decisions taken by President Pervez Musharraf, after the September 11 incidents in the US, saved Pakistan from the onslaught of the world powers”.

He said both PPP and PML-N betrayed the masses and instead of resolving their problems created more complicated situation for them.

Mian Muhammad Aslam of Jamat-i-Islami held four corner meetings in Badana, Shakaryal and Khadda Market. He expressed the hope that this time religious parties would “defeat the agents of evils”, as the people, after being betrayed by the past rulers and military dictatorship, wanted to be led by the religious leaders”.