Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has termed Premier Sheikh Hasina’s recent plea against the provision of a non-party caretaker government (CG) as groundless, and said no one will be sent to jail, if the CG is restored in accordance with its previous constitutional spirit. “The Premier, Sheikh Hasina, is deliberately saying that she and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia would be sent to jail, if the CG is restored. Such logic is blatantly groundless,” he said. On Friday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at a discussion meeting in the city that if the caretaker government is formed again, it will try to remain in power till doomsday, and send her and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia, to jail, like in the past.
Rejecting the logic, Alamgir, who is also the acting secretary general of the party, said no one will be sent to jail if the CG system is restored to the charter, following its previous constitutional spirit.
Alamgirwas addressing a programme organised at the Engineers’ Institute of Bangladesh in the capital, on Saturday afternoon. The programme was held to protest against the issuance of an arrest warrant against the party’s senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman.
On Saturday, in a views exchange meeting with her party’s grassroots leaders from Rangpur, held at the Prime Minister’s official residence Gana Bhaban, Sheikh Hasina urged the opposition BNP to return to the right path of democracy, and not to organise a movement on the streets. Responding to the call, Alamgir said, “We’re still on the right path of democracy and we also well understand the democratic practices of the ruling Awami League.”
About a recent indecorous speech in Parliament, Alamgir said the leader of the House, Sheikh Hasina, herself, is engaged in making indecorous statements against her political opponent, which is an unprecedented instance in the country’s long history.
He assailed the government for the disappearance of Jahangir Alam, a rebel mayoral candidate of the ruling Awami League in the Gazipur City Corporation election, and demanded to know his whereabouts immediately.
In order to keep Jahangir Alam away from the civic body poll, a group of leaders of the ruling party’s students’ and youths’ fronts picked him up and took him to PM Sheikh Hasina, on Tuesday night. Since then, he has been missing, Alamgir stated.
Alamgir said at least 61 political leaders, including BNP central leader M Ilias Ali, have disappeared so far, during the last four-and-a-half year-long administration of the Awami League.
-With The Independent input
