BNP chairperson’s advisers opt for preparations for movement

The advisers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, have advised her not to go for street agitation immediately without all out preparation.
They made the advice as Khaleda held a meeting with her advisory council members at her Gulshan office on Monday, meeting sources said.
‘Conclusion of the meeting was that everybody must prepare mentally and physically for movement,’ an adviser told New Age on Tuesday.
He said that many advisers observed that it would not be wise to go for street agitation immediately without all out preparation, both organisational and individual.
Replying to a question, he said Khaleda called for forging unity within the party burying differences over posts and positions to wage an effective movement.
He said that the BNP chairperson admitted that some mistakes had been committed during the movement against the January 5 general election, boycotted by the party along with all other opposition parties.
The meeting observed that the party should lead the ongoing movement to a decisive point as soon as possible through democratic and constitutional ways without resorting to any destructive action, meeting sources said.
Replying to a question, the adviser said that no time frame was set to drive the movement to peak and it might take few months to reach a desired goal.
He said that the advisers did not discuss about enforcing any general strike now.
The BNP chairperson told the meeting that the reactivation of the party was going on. Dhaka city unit of BNP is being reorganised for the next movement.
The matter of not issuing a condolence message at the death of war crimes convict Ghulam Azam and not participating in his namaz-e-janaza by the party did not come up in the discussion, an adviser said.
Some advisers suggested to build-up a broad-based anti-government unity of opposition parties under a single umbrella, sources said.
The advisers told Khaleda that good relations should be maintained with political parties outside the BNP-led alliance, particularly those raising voice against the government’s misdeeds and undemocratic activities.
Issue-based simultaneous movement can be launched with other political parties to restore democracy, they advised Khaleda.
The advisory council meeting chaired by Khaleda was held at her Gulshan office for about three hours from 9:00pm. It also discussed the ongoing movement, organisational matters and next course of action.
Almost all the advisers attended the meeting, party sources said.
The meeting discussed about various chaos and indiscipline in the party and its associate bodies, lack of coordination between central leaders and grassroots, the meeting sources said.
It was the third meeting of the advisory council with a gap of over one year and a half after its formation following BNP’s national council session in 2009.
The advisory council had 37 members three of whom died, the party sources said.
An adviser who deals with foreign relation briefed the meeting about foreign countries’ positions over the present political situation in Bangladesh, the meeting sources added.
BNP chairperson would sit with the party’s vice-chairmen, joint secretaries-general and organising secretaries at her office on Tuesday night and with the party’s national standing committee on Thursday.