Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia will address eight public rallies across the country, including the capital Dhaka, from September 8 onwards to garner the people’s support in favour of her party’s demand to hold the next general polls under the oversight of a non-party caretaker government (CG). A day after Premier Sheikh Hasina’s announcement that her government would not budge even an inch from the constitutional provision on holding the next general elections, BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday announced its fresh programme to force the government to meet the demand.
Addressing a press conference, Alamgir, who is also the acting secretary general of the party, said his party’s chief Khaleda Zia will address a rally in Narsingdi on September 8.
Later, the leader of the opposition will address rallies in Rajshahi on September 15, Rangpur on September 16, Khulna on September 22, Barisal on September 28 and Sylhet on October 5.
Apart from this, the chief of the BNP-led 18-Party Alliance will also address rallies in Dhaka and Chittagong after Eid-ul-Azha. Schedules for these two rallies will be announced later, Alamgir said.
Alamgir said his party has already formed a total of 56 teams which will carry out tours across its 75 organisational districts till August 31 to strengthen the party’s organisational activities. During the visits, they will also take initiatives to reorganise the leaders, supporters and activists of the party’s different fronts and associate bodies and its alliance partners so as to bring in dynamism for making the mission of the 18-Party Alliance a success, he added.
The programmes were designed at the meetings of the party’s national standing committee and with its alliance leaders on Saturday night and Sunday night respectively, with Khaleda Zia in the chair, at her Gulshan office.
He, however, warned that the 18-Party Alliance would announce an intensive programme after evaluating the country’s evolving political situation and the government’s attitudes towards the opposition’s antigovernment campaign.
Responding to a query, Alamgir said the BNP-led 18-Party Alliance wants to give more time to the government to fulfil its demand for restoration of the CG and so it has come up with the programme with a soft line of action.
The BNP believes in an antigovernment movement in a disciplined manner. It does not do politics according to anyone’s dictates, he said while replying to a question.
Alamgir has accused the government of pushing the country and its people towards a dark tunnel. The country’s Constitution has become a mess following the 15th amendment that has annulled the CG provision from the charter, he added.
The political crisis has become acute in the country because of the government’s hard stance and stubborn refusal to implement the CG provision. The government itself is responsible and it will have to bring the country and its people out of the crisis, he added.
“We hope the government will realise the depth of the prevailing political crisis. We are also hopeful that good sense would immediately prevail upon it for overcoming the crisis,” he added.
Responding to another query, he said, “We have said a thousand times that we will refrain from elections if these are held under a party management. We want dialogue and the ruling Awami League should come forward in this regard.”
The nationalist forces as well as the people of the country will never allow the government to arrange the next general elections while remaining in office, he said.
Leaders of the BNP-led 18-Party Alliance, including Jamaat leader Redual Ullah Salehi, Kollayan Party chairman Syed Mohammad Ibrahim, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (JAGPA) chief Safiul Alom Prodhan, Islami Oikya Jote leader Abdul Latif Nezami and others were present at the press briefing.
-With The Independent input
