The Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, has branded the present Election Commission ‘handicapped’ and vowed not to let it hold the next general elections. ‘We will not allow holding of the next elections under Sheikh Hasina. Nor the current Election Commission would be allowed to conduct the polls because it is handicapped,’ he said at a discussion at Engineers’ Institution in the city on Thursday afternoon.
Ziaur Rahman Foundation organised the discussion on ‘Tarique’s vision of future Bangladesh and the thoughts of grassroots people.’
Fakhrul said the constitution should be changed in
deference to the demand of the people as ‘it is not the holy Quran or Bible and it is made for the people’.
‘The constitution should be changed to restore the caretaker government system to meet the
aspiration of the people’, he said.
Fakhrul claimed that the Awami League no longer remained a political party. ‘They have become bankrupt, and they do not have the strength to deal with a political party by means of politics.’
‘They have chosen the path of oppression. They are detaining our leaders, planning to impose new law to control mass media and contain the people by banning rallies and gatherings’, Fakhrul said.
Supreme Court Bar Association vice-president Khandakar Mahbub Hossain alleged that the conspirators of 1/11 had tried to kill Tarique Rahman but failed in the attempt and they were now trying to tarnish his ‘image’ by filing ‘false’ graft cases against him.
He said the Awami League was ‘afraid’ of Tarique because he would ‘lead’ the nation in future.
Former Dhaka University pro-vice chancellor AFM Yusuf Haider said there were ‘qualities of statesmanship’ in Tarique as he had initiated ‘grass-root politics’ and he did politics for farmers and other marginalised people.
Poet Al Mahmud said the people of Bangladesh wanted democracy, not autocracy.
BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas, former diplomat Rashed Ahmed Chowdhury, former secretary Ferdous Ara Begum and Jatiya Press Club president Kamal Uddin Sabuj, among others, spoke on the occasion.
-With New Age input
