ISLAMABAD: At its last public meeting before the general election, the Awami Workers Party (AWP) candidate in NA-53 said the AWP was a ray of hope for change in the “obsolete governance system”.

Holding party flags, a number of party workers braved the rain to participate in the public meeting on Sunday, and vowed to support both candidates – Ammar Rashid in NA-53 and Ismat Raza Shahjahan in NA-54 – on July 25.

Mr Rashid is contesting the Islamabad constituency against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Speaking at the meeting, he said the AWP was the only party with a progressive manifesto focused on empowering the working class, and with a proven track record of political work.

“While the other parties talk about bringing prosperity to all citizens, their agenda and past policies have repeatedly shown that they are concerned primarily with bringing benefit to the feudals and capitalists who are their main constituency,” he said.

When AWP was defending the constitutional right of working class Pakistanis to have access to affordable housing in Islamabad, its rivals supported the bulldozing of katchi abadis that housed thousands of families in Islamabad, all to benefit real estate developers, he said.

Ms Shahjahan from NA-54 said this general election could not be declared free, fair and transparent. She added that militant organisations were participating in the elections after changing their names, and the PTI chief was a darling of the establishment.

“While we campaigned door-to-door and shop-to-shop in working class neighbourhoods, our rivals only concerned themselves with the elite,” she said, adding that the AWP campaign highlighted what ‘people’s campaign’ looks like.

“While our campaign was repeatedly harassed and stopped by authorities under the pretext of security concerns, our rivals had an open field to campaign wherever and whenever they wanted,” she alleged.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2018