Polls-Time Govt: BNP to come up with outline after discussion

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the party will come up with an outline for an election-time neutral government after consultation with all stakeholders.

“We are discussing the neutral caretaker government system,” he told journalists at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office yesterday.

Fakhrul, however, did not clarify when the outline will be unveiled.

The caretaker government system was annulled following a court verdict in 2011. The court declared illegal a constitutional provision that mandates an elected government to transfer power to an unelected non-partisan caretaker administration to oversee a parliamentary election on completion of its term.

The BNP has long been demanding national election under a caretaker government, but the ruling Awami League said there is no scope for holding polls under an unelected caretaker government.

Demanding the government step down, Fakhrul yesterday said they hope that good sense would prevail in the ruling party and it would hold talks with other political parties to introduce a neutral election-time government system.

“If the government stays in office, the election will not be free and fair. That’s why our statement is very clear. The government must quit and an arrangement must be made to introduce an election-time caretaker government through holding talks with all political parties.”

Enquired about local and international pressure for holding a free and fair election, Fakhrul said it seemed to him that there was no government in the country.

“The situation has become so bad that not only the people of the country but also the international community has become compelled to say that there is no human rights and democracy in the country.

“You listen more to what they [international community] are saying. This is what we have been saying for the last 12 years. Our 600 people have become victims of enforced disappearances. Recently, 17 party men were shot dead. But you don’t give importance to that. That’s the problem.”

The BNP secretary general said that the media also cannot write everything due to the Digital Security Act and other “repressive” acts. “How can a democratic state function like this?”

Fakhrul said that the announcement on the one-point movement to oust the government would be made shortly after Eid.

GBDESK//