Sheikh Hasina on Monday informed her cabinet colleagues that an election-time government, comprising representatives of various political parties, would be formed within November 15-20, a senior minister, who did not want to be named, quoted the Prime Minister as having said. It will have 21 members and the Prime Minister will be the head. According to the minister, the election will be held by January 15. Of the 21-members, 11 will be from the Awami League and the rest from other parties. Before forming the interim government, the Prime Minister will ask her cabinet colleagues to resign from the cabinet.
The ruling party has already announced that its parliamentary board will start interviews for nomination from November 10.
At the meeting, several ministers proposed that seniors like the finance minister, LGRD minister, environment minister, agriculture minister, disaster management minister, education minister and the communications minister, AL presidium members, Mohammad Nasim and Tofail Ahmed, and minister without portfolio Suranjit Sengupta should be included in the interim government.
According to the minister, a senior minister informed the cabinet that a group of BNP leaders, known as reformists, may contest the poll.
The Prime Minister advised her colleagues to prepare for the election keeping in mind that the BNP was their main adversary. She said the Opposition BNP might change its mind at the last moment and join the poll, the minister added. The Premier told her colleagues that they should face the Opposition’s movement with a cool head.
Sheikh Hasina also informed her cabinet colleagues that a quarter with vested interests might try to disrupt the general election. Everyone must be on their toes.
On October 28, the Prime Minister made it clear that she would form an all-party election-time government with small political parties, if the BNP did not respond to her proposal.
Meanwhile, the cabinet approved the draft of ‘Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Act- 2013’ for providing assistance and mobilise money for the welfare of journalists.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters that the government floated a fund of Tk one crore for the welfare of journalists and this year the government has earmarked Taka 1.10 crore for the fund. “The fund can be used for giving scholarships to journalists for significant contribution to the profession and stipend to meritorious children of journalists for education,” the added.
The trust will be a statutory body and its trustee board will be constituted comprising 13 members, headed by the information minister, he added.
Maximum members of the trust will be drawn from journalists and others will be from government officials of the ministries concerned, he added.
A managing director would be appointed to carry out regular activities of the trust, he added.
The cabinet also approved the draft of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Integrated Policy- 2013 and another draft of the Formalin Use Control Act 2013.
-With The Independent input
