Several senior leaders of the BNP-led 18-party alliance have rejected the government move to form a poll-time interim cabinet, saying that it’s nothing but a mockery.
“The government move to form this so-called poll-time government is a mockery with the people,” BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists at the party chief Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan Office on Sunday night.
In his immediate reaction to the government move, he also vowed to continue with the ongoing movement to push for restoration of the non-party caretaker government (CG) system until the demand is met.
Some other leaders of the opposition alliance said that the move has plunged the country into a fresh crisis.
“The crisis, created through the annulment of the non-party CG provision from the constitution, has deepened further with the announcement to form the so-called all-party poll-time government,” BNP Standing Committee Member Mahbubr Rahman told The Independent Sunday night.
He also rejected the attempt to form such a ‘partisan administration under the helm of the current government’, and said no participatory and credible election can be held under their supervision.
Mahbubur Rahman, also a former army chief, said, “We are surprised to see the government’s unilateral move to hold the next general election, keeping the BNP out of the poll process.”
BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said, “We are watching the government’s move. We will wage an intensive movement so that the government cannot move forward with this ill-motive.”
Jatiya Ganatantrik Party chief Shafiul Alam Prodhan said politics of confrontation has become inevitable through the government’s decision to form a poll-time cabinet headed by Sheikh Hasina.
He also said that visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal ‘may have refrained from discouraging Hasina to form such a government as Hasina is likely to fulfil the US agenda if re-elected.”
-With The Independent input