Ruling Awami League has described BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Tuesday statements as ‘unrealistic, absurd and full of falsehood’. “There is no truth in Khaleda’s speech. All of her words in the statement are baseless and unrealistic,” said Amir Hossain Amu, a senior leader of Awami League. He made the remarks at a press conference at Party Chief Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi political office in the city on Tuesday, soon after Khaleda’s briefing. The AL leader said Khaleda cannot say that the upcoming parliamentary elections would be farcical. “It will be determined in the future whether the Jan 5 general election is a farcical one or not,” he said. Amu, also the land minister of the polls-time government, said the BNP had been compelled to meet the Awami League’s caretaker government demand in 1996 because it was a popular demand to establish people’s rights to vote.
“Awami League did not rig vote in any elections. So why the party will meet the BNP’s caretaker government demand,” he added.
The AL leader also said the BNP chairperson was waging
movement to create a constitutional crisis and to save the war criminals. “Her so-called movement was not for the restoration of the caretaker government system.”
He said that the Jan 5 elections must be held to uphold the constitution and that the opposition leader would not be able to foil it.
Referring to meetings between the ruling and the opposition parties to reach a consensus under the UN mediation, Amu said the AL had asked the BNP to create a congenial atmosphere for dialogue by stopping killings and suspending programmes like strikes and blockades.
‘But they (opposition) did not stop those. We assured them [BNP] that their leaders would be released if they stop killing people and enforcing blockades,’ he said.
-With The Independent input
