The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday brushed aside the ruling Awami League’s claim about informal parleys with the opposition on an election-time government and said that discussions could not take place secretly but the Awami League was secretly hatching conspiracy.
‘What is done in secret is not a discussion… it is conspiracy,’ said Khaleda, also the leader of the opposition in the parliament.
Khaleda, as she addressed a student rally, said that the ruling party was making statements on holding secret discussions with the BNP over the election-time government to mislead people.
Khaleda said that the government had understood that it had been isolated from people and was now talking about behind-the-scenes discussions to confuse people.
She asked who in the BNP the Awami League had spoken with as she was not aware of it.
The BNP’s student organisation Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal held the rally at the Institution of Engineers marking its 34th founding anniversary.
The Awami League’s general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on Monday said that informal talks were going on with the opposition on election-time government and formal dialogues with the BNP would take place soon.
Khaleda, also a former prime minister, said that no formula of the Awami League would work.
She said that the formula was simple that elections would not be held under the incumbent government.
The BNP chief said that the political parties could together choose the chief adviser to the caretaker government and 10 other advisers.
The tenure of such a caretaker government would not be more than 90 days, she said adding that the caretaker government would oversee the general elections and carry out routine government works. It cannot enact any law, Khaleda said clearing her party’s position on the issue.
She said that the BNP had announced peaceful programmes to push for the holding of the next general elections under a non-party government.
She said that discussions could definitely be held to reach a consensus on the framework f a non-party government.
Khaleda said that her party, when it was in power, had held open discussions with the Awami League, then in opposition, on the issue of the caretaker government.
She said that the Awami League at the time had not accept the formula of Australian governor general Sir Ninian who came to Dhaka to broker a consensus between the two major political parties on the caretaker government issue.
Khaleda iterated that no fair elections were held under the Awami League and such things would also not happen in the future.
She said that there was no short cut and iterated that the next general elections must be held under a non-party government.
Khaleda sad that the Awami League did not believe in democracy and it had always supported the people who had come to power through the back door.
Referring to the independence war, she said that the Awami League may be a pro-independence force but it is not a party of freedom fighters.
Khaleda said that the BNP had reestablished parliamentary democracy in the country and wanted to continue with the trend.
She said that people were looking forward to BNP and nationalist forces to get rid of the misrule and misdeeds of the Awami League-led government.
She urged the government to release leaders of all political parties, including the acting BNP secretary general.
The BNP chief urged the government to bring the caretaker government bill in the parliament so that democracy was not destroyed.
She urged Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal to take responsibility for the restoration of congenial atmosphere to educational institutions by uniting students and by driving out armed trouble-mongers.
She came down heavily on activities of the Chhatra League, the student organisation of the Awami League, saying that Chhata League activists were ‘not doing politics and they were terrorists.’
The Chhatra Dal president, Abdul Quader Bhuiyan Jewel, presided over the programme. BNP leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Tariqul Islam, Amanullah Aman, Fazlul Huq Milon, Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anne, Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and JCD general secretary Habibur Rashid Habib also spoke.
Khaleda inaugurated the rally by releasing pigeons and balloons in the air.