The leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance decided to launch a movement with all the parties forging separate programmes to demand the release of the jailed BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
They believed the issue of Khaleda’s release provided a strong ground for a movement and would be the only possible way for the alliance to remain viable in the political arena.
The leaders of the alliance took the decision at a meeting of the alliance on Monday evening at BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office.
The alliance leaders sat in the meeting after about three months.
A number of leaders of the alliance told New Age preferring anonymity that they discussed in the meeting the failure of BNP, the alliance and Jatiya Oikya Front to put pressure on the government over the ‘farcical’ general elections held on December 30.
They observed that the government remained unyielding and autocratic towards BNP and its allied parties and the demand and movement for the re-election proved unproductive.
‘Now the only possible way to ensure our political presence would be by pressing for the releasing of Khaleda Zia,’ said a leader, adding that the meeting decided to chalk out separate programmes by the allied parties and united movement under BNP.
The meeting also discussed BNP’s priority to Jatiya Oikya Front, though the alliance leaders said BNP’s alliance with JOF yielded nothing except that two Gono Forum leaders, who won in December 30 election, took oath as lawmakers.
After the meeting, the alliance coordinator and BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan told reporters that the allied parties decided to carry out separate programmes for Khaleda’s release.
‘The BNP-led alliance believes the release of madam Khaleda Zia is akin to the restoration of democracy,’ he said.
Nazrul said the allied parties have no problem among them and they would remain united. He said the BNP want greater unity of the political parties who want restoration of democracy and are disgusted by the current misrule of the ruling Awami League.
‘We want other political parties outside our alliance to join us in the movement for the restoration of democracy,’ he said.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir presided over the meeting, where Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Halim, Jatiya Party (Zafar) leader Mostafa Jamal Haider, Kalyan Party chairman Syed M Ibrahim, Liberal Democratic Party secretary Redwan Ahmed, Labour Party chairman Mostafizur Rahman Iran, Khelafat Majlish leader Abdul Quader, among others, attended.
Source: New Age.
